The Coming of Shadows
by DemonSessama
Summary: It was meant to be a regular Dueling Tournament filled with exhilarating duels, new rivals and potentially new friends for Kylie and Katherine Hope but when they come into contact with a budding new duelist known as Yugi Muto, a sinister, secret agenda crops up putting the sisters in danger... but this is only the beginning. Part 1 of 6 in the Hope Chronicles.
1. Chapter 1

**Good Day Readers! Obviously I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh only Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 1: - The Duelist Kingdom Tournament

You want to hear a story, ok then I'll tell you one, this story however isn't a fairy-tale it's **very** real. This story begins three thousand years ago when the pyramids of Egypt were still young and mighty Pharaohs played a game of great power known as the Shadow Games or Dark Games, however these games eventually erupted into a devastating war.

When this dark power swept over the land, the Pharaoh who ruled at the time sealed it away at the cost of his own life, however his soul was sealed inside of a Millennium Item, one of eight mystical objects that held incredible magical power. It was said that the Pharaoh would one day return when the world needed saving once again. This is the story of how two sisters met the Pharaoh and helped him to save the world, this brings us to the present day in the spring of nineteen, ninety-seven.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

" _Kylie wake up, we're here_ ," I groaned out as I forcibly shook my sister. Her prone form didn't even move except to bury herself further into the quilt cover and groan something incomprehensibly, I huffed at my sister's stubbornness so I walked over to the bathroom and filled a cup with cold water. I headed back over to my sister and dumped the water all over her which caused Kylie to shoot up rigid with shock.

" _KATHERINE!_ " Kylie screamed. Her angular emerald green eyes glared down at me in annoyance as her long sun red hair plastered itself to her angular face, she then stood up and immediately set about getting herself dressed for our arrival as I was already dressed before I set about on the task of getting my sister up.

The older woman strode out of the bathroom looking a beautiful as she always did with her hair being pulled back into its' typical braid so that the strands wouldn't get into her eyes whilst she duel and her sharp jewel eyes were focused as she shuffled through her deck before sliding it into her deck holder.

She was dressed in an amber tunic top with jeans and a pair of flat knee high boots that were hidden underneath her jeans. Meanwhile my charcoal black hair rested softly on my shoulders and perfectly framed my heart-shaped face which emphasised my wide black-brown eyes, I wore a knee length, short sleeved, blue summer dress with a pair of dark blue tights, a long-sleeved blue cardigan and black ballet flats.

" _Let's go_ ," Kylie called out. Her voice knocked me out of my musings so I grabbed my deck pouch and looped the belt that held it around my waist and fastened it tight, Kylie already had her deck pouch fastened on and grabbed the duffel bag that was stuffed with food and sleeping equipment that we would need to survive whilst on the island.

We had been invited to attend the Duelist Kingdom tournament that was being hosted by Pegasus J. Crawford on his private island alongside other prospective duelists. The two of us headed out of our cabin and down the boarding ramp where all the other duelists were gathering and chatting however Kylie didn't stop so I hurried to keep up with her but this ended up with me smashing into someone.

" _I am so sorry_ ," I apologised. I rubbed the sore part of my head which had smashed into the person's head, I had been sent to the ground because of the collision but it sounded like the person was still standing and that they were surrounded by other people from the words flying about close to me.

" _It's alright, are you ok?_ " A soft yet noticeably masculine voice asked. Although it was English the words were slightly accented, I looked up and saw a boy of about my height and age, he had hair that flared out in a star shape with multiple layers consisting of long blonde crooked, pointy locks for his fringe which framed his wide amethyst eyes, the rest were made up of five large black spikes and two smaller spikes coloured black with a magenta sheen along the edges. He wore a blue and white uniform complete with a closed buckled collar, around his neck was an upside down golden pyramid with a very familiar eye in the centre held secure by a piece of brown rope.

" _Katherine come on_ ," Kylie's voice called out. I snapped out of my stupor and scrambled to my feet before darting towards my sister who gently placed her hand on my shoulder as she looked behind me, obviously observing the boy. Kylie turned her attention back to me and ruffled my hair a bit which I immediately straightened out and I glared at her, Kylie smiled before we continued on up to the castle were Pegasus would greet us.

"Hey look there's some impressive members gathered here. It's the champion of Japan, Insector Haga," One of the duelists commented. I looked over to the blue haired bespectacled individual and immediately shuffled closer to my sister as his beady bug-like eyes immediately creeped me out. They called out more people from the same tournament such as second place Dinosaur Ryuzaki and third place Kajiki Ryota.

"No way are those the Hope sisters, that's so cool," Another one commented. I ducked my head allowing my short hair to act as a barrier between me and everyone else although I felt Kylie's hand gently landed on my shoulder in a show of support as she knew how nervous and shy I got around crowds.

"Without Kaiba here then the winner has to be one of those two," They continued on their conversation. However this did peak my interest as I hadn't spotted the frosty eyed brunette anywhere even on the boat so I began to wonder if he was running late which seemed highly unlikely and wondered why they believed he wouldn't be here.

"Now that you mention it, that Yugi guy who beat Kaiba's got to be around here somewhere!" One duelist exclaimed. My eyes widened upon hearing those words whilst Kylie's narrowed in contemplation, I had only known my sister to stand any chance against the World Champion yet those always end in a draw and by the skin of both of their teeth.

The duelists surrounding us continued talking about this person but their words fell upon deaf ears as my thoughts sawm around the person. Yugi, so that was the name of the person who defeated the World Champion which was an impressive feat as I knew that Seto had three Blue-Eyes White Dragon which were some of the most powerful and rare cards in the entire world, it was at the moment that Pegasus decided to make his appearance.

"Welcome! Welcome to the Duelist Kingdom. Now allow me to explain the rules to you, please use your Duel Monsters cards freely during this tournament. You will hold two thousand Life Points and players are strictly forbidden from attacking the opponent directly. You may fight to your heart's content using your strongest card decks you've brought with you! Every duelist received a Duel Glove in advance and two star chips," Pegasus explained.

He finished up by saying only those who successfully gathered ten star chips via dueling would be allowed access to the castle in an opportunity to face off against the Creator of Duel Monsters himself, that this whole island would be the battlefield and that the competition would begin in one hour with only forty-eight hours to collect all ten star chips, so until that time myself and Kylie broke away from the group to find some peace.

"So Seto was beaten by an unknown duelist… how interesting. I wonder how good this Yugi really is," Kylie commented. I nodded my head in agreement with her statement, perhaps we would find out during this tournament. The hour passed, marked by fireworks, so me and my sister set off into the wooded area to look for our first opponents.

"I'll never forgive you!" A familiar voice echoed so me and Kylie decided to head in its' direction. Upon our arrival I saw the same boy who I had bumped into earlier, however I noticed that he was taller than before approximately Kylie's height and his hair was more wild with some of the yellow parts shooting up into his hair like lightning bolts whilst his eyes had become more angular and were a more crimson shade.

"Haga, I praise you for challenging me head on," The boy commented. I noticed that his voice had gotten much deeper when I compared it to earlier, it was then that I noticed the beady eyed bug duelist was also in the clearing we had found, Haga however simply snickered at the boy's comment.

"If I crush you right from the start, I won't even break a sweat later on," Haga taunted. I narrowed my eyes at the Bug Specialist knowing that this creepy worm had no chance of beating myself or Kylie, it seemed like his ego was rather inflated to believe everything would be easy after beating this stranger.

"I was just thinking the same thing!" The boy shot back. Haga cried out two words and the ground began to shake which caused the boy and his friends to freak out a bit as a duelling arena rose up out of the ground with the strangers being surprised by the size of the arena that stood before them, one even asked if they were set up all across the island.

"Oh interesting. I think we'll watch," Kylie commented. This summoned everyone's attention to us and Haga seemed to tense up upon seeing that the two of us standing there and took a miniscule step backwards causing Kylie to smirk a little.

"You're Kylie and Katherine Hope," Haga commented. However it seemed that the other four didn't know who we were, I sensed their eyes on us and so I clung to my sister as I hid my face behind my hair once more, I felt Kylie release a sigh as she shifted the weight in her legs.

"Come now don't focus on us, get to the duel," Kylie pushed. The boys reacted to her words and they immediately leapt up on to one of the podiums with Weevil taking the red one and the mystery boy taking the blue one, the two of us walked over to the side of the duelling arena to get a better look at the action.

"You only have one star chip. If I steal it from you, you'll be knocked out of the tournament immediately! Then I only have to bet one star chip to even the match," Haga declared. However the mystery boy wasn't having any of that as he declared that Haga would be betting two star chips as the mystery boy wanted one of them to be utterly crushed… Haga had clearly ticked this guy off. "But Yugi, what will you bet in place of the other star chip?" Haga asked.

The mystery boy declared it would be his deck however I was more focused on that name, Yugi, this must have been the boy that defeated Seto which meant Kylie would get to see how good he was right off the bat and judging from my sister's smile, she was rather happy about this turn of events

"Interesting, so that's the boy that beat Seto. I think I'm going to enjoy this tournament," Kylie commented. I saw her hand drift to her deck as she lightly traced the outline of her cards that rested within the pouch.

"Now that's interesting, very well. Had I known this would happened, I never would have wasted Exodia like that," Haga commented. I was confused by his mention of the single most powerful monster in the game, the three other people that were with Yugi encouraged him on and I heard more people arrive to watch the duel but they didn't recognise Yugi.

"That's Muto Yugi, who beat Kaiba and I'm his best friend Jounouchi Katsuya and… our chummy buddies!" The blonde boy commented. The last part caused the other two individuals to fall down in shock, I noticed that the blonde boy's hair style was very sporadically arranged in a taper-like and unrealistic fashion and he had brown eyes, he wore a long green open jacket with a raised collar, a plain white T-shirt underneath and blue jeans with trainers.

The other boy had brown hair that was arranged in such a way that a large portion spiked out from the front of his head and he had brown eyes, he wore a long brown coat with a raised collar, a white button shirt underneath and black jeans with shoes. The girl had brown shoulder-length hair that was sectioned into two layers, consisting of an inner layer that was a darker shade of brown, with the outer layer being a lighter shade and blue eyes, she wore a yellow shirt, which flows like a skirt at her thighs, with a pink waistcoat over it, a blue mini-skirt and a pair of brown knee-high boots.

The new spectators were surprised to see that Yugi and Haga were duelling at this early stage claiming it was an elite duel, if Yugi had defeated Seto through skill then there could be no doubt that he probably was a high skilled duelist.

 **Haga – LP: 2000**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

The Duel Arena proceeded to activate and I noticed that the field of the Duel Arena seemed to take of the appearance of our surroundings which hadn't happened before, Weevil began the duel by bringing out Killer Bee with the giant bug being holographical projected onto the field.

 **Killer Bee – Attribute: Wind, Type: Bug, Level: 4, ATK/1200, DEF/1000.**

"My card is Mammoth Graveyard,"Yugi declared. As he did, the boy summoned his monster causing the bones of the mammoth to appear on the field.

 **Mammoth Graveyard – Attribute: Earth, Type: Dinosaur, Level: 3, ATK/1200, DEF/800.**

Yugi declared an attack however despite being evenly matched in points only Mammoth Graveyard was destroyed which surprised Yugi and everyone else who had seen the event… except for Haga, who had seemed rather confident that his monster would survive the battle.

"Yugi, you don't seem to get why I chose this forest for the location of our duel, shall I tell you?" Haga questioned. He didn't allow Yugi anytime to answer before he continued on his tirade. "The truth is, Pegasus-san told me the new rules for the Duelist Kingdom tournament. Take a good look at this arena's field, my area is shown very clearly on the display. The field we're battling on right now is eighty percent forest while only twenty percent is made up of Wasteland," Haga explained.

The forest field powered up the insect cards that Haga used, I gritted my teeth at this as Pegasus telling Haga just wasn't right since Duel Monsters was meant to be played fairly, although it seemed that luck was on Yugi's side in that moment.

Yugi had laughed after Haga's speech and pointed out that Killer Bee had been destroyed due to the fact that Mammoth Graveyard had also gained a field power source thanks to the wasteland portion, Yugi explained that the reason why the tournament was held on this particular island was because it had every single type of environment contained within its' borders.

The duel continued with Haga summoning out Heracles Beetle however I noticed that Yugi looked torn about what to do and I didn't blame him as he couldn't rearrange his deck in the middle of a duel and would have to power through it somehow.

 **Heracles Beetle – Attribute: Earth, Type: Insect, Level: 5, ATK/1500, DEF/2000.**

 **Heracles Beetle – ATK/1500 – ATK/1950, DEF/2000 – DEF/2600.**

Yugi eventually managed to make a move by summoning out the monster known as Gremlin and equipped it with a spell card known as Horn of the Unicorn which increased the Gremlin's attack power.

 **Gremlin – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400.**

 **Gremlin – ATK/1300 – ATK/2000, DEF/1400 – DEF/2100.**

The two monsters clashed however even though it had a higher attack power, Gremlin was still destroyed as a result of the battle which surprised everyone although we soon found out that the Field Power Source negated all equip spell effects thus rendering any combo attempt useless and so Yugi lost a lot of Life Points due to this move.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1350.**

"An insect card with that little attack power can become very strong due to the Field Power!" Jounouchi commented. The brunette boy claimed that the insects had the advantage on this field and the brunette girl simply told Yugi not to give up.

Yugi decided to take the defensive route and placed his card face down in defence position so as to protect his Life Points however Haga retaliated by summoning out his Basic Insect which he then equipped with two spell cards raising its' attack points even higher.

 **Basic Insect – Attribute: Earth, Type: Insect, Level: 2, ATK/500, DEF/700.**

 **Basic Insect – ATK/500 – ATK/2150, DEF/700 – DEF/1410.**

Haga then had his insect destroy Yugi's only line of defence although the duelist quickly rebuilt it by playing another monster face down to protect himself however Haga declared that he would be setting a secret card face down on the field which meant it was probably a trap card however I heard Kylie hum obviously having noticed something that had escaped Haga's attention.

Haga summoned out more and more insects obviously preparing to obliterate any defence that Yugi attempted to build, it was lucky that Haga was too overconfident to trying and see beyond the current situation that the duel was at since that meant that Yugi would probably be able to surprise him at some point.

"The way it's going, his enemies will keep increasing!" The girl commented. It was obvious that she wasn't a duelist so I had to wonder why she was here and how she even got on the island to begin with but that could wait until another time.

"Even if you say that, Yugi's attack's been sealed," Jounouchi commented. The more I watched this duel the more confused I became as the person duelling was so different to the boy I bumped into on the docks that I wondered if he was actually a different person.

Haga claimed that this was going to be Yugi last day as a duelist and his insects were going to celebrate but Yugi wasn't backing down as he proceeded to play another monster in face down defence position, Haga attacked but Yugi laughed as he revealed that he had laid a trap and proceeded to activate it.

The trap was Holy Barrier – Mirror Force and when the attack was fired from Basic Insect, the hidden monster came out revealing itself to be Black Magician and a mirror barrier appeared before him causing the attack to be bounced right back and destroy all of Haga's monsters in one sure fire blow which severally depleted Haga's Life Points.

 **Haga – LP: 2000 – LP: 555**

"I guess you became Japan's Regional Champion by pure luck. You're too confident in your strategy and you didn't pay attention to my card. Let me say this clearly Haga… you're too weak!" Yugi lectured. This individual was most certainly a completely different entity to the person that I had ran into at the docks, was it coincidence that they looked familiar or was there something else involved in the coincidental similarities between him and that young boy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 2: - The Ultimate Great Moth

The image of Black Magician faded away as its' card had been set in face down defence position, Yugi's friends cheered and encouraged him however they were soon cut off by a rather obnoxious female laugh which caused me to turn around as a woman walked up to us, she looked to be six years older than myself with long blonde hair and purple eyes, she wore a short-sleeved purple coat over her white tube top and purple high-heeled boots.

"I wonder about that. Yugi-chan has only taken a slight lead in this match, Duel Monsters is the type of game where you don't know what will happen in one turn. It's too early to get excited," The woman commented. The three who were with Yugi turned to face her and I noticed that the brunette girl was shaking in anger.

"What the hell!? Yugi just took the lead here" She yelled at the woman. However the woman simply ignored those words as she advanced closer to the Duel Arena whilst commenting that the real match was just about to get started, Jounouchi agreed with the woman's words calling her Mai-chan with the brunette boy admitting his agreeance as well with the brunette girl being identified as Anzu.

"A duel's not over until the last card's played. This can still go either way," I commented. Those words were my own personal belief and this pulled their attention to me as I simply kept my eyes forward not wanting to miss a single move but I still felt Mai's purple orbs analysing me.

"So you're **the** __Kylie Hope, you don't exactly live up to the hype," Mai commented. In response I simply chuckled at her sentence and kept my focus solely on the duel before me whilst Katherine shook her head at the woman's words.

"Yugi, you'll regret making me get serious!" Haga spoke. I was getting really tired of hearing his nasally voice and I wished that they would get on with this duel already simply so that he would shut up.

"Put your complaints in all your cards. I'll wipe the floor with them!" Yugi declared a smirk resting on his face. I allowed a smile to rest on my lips as I was really beginning to like this kid, he had skill and he wasn't one to sit back and let people trash talk him either.

"Savour the mood whilst you can! I still have the ultimate trump card amongst my insect cards. As soon as I play that card, my victory is assured, Yugi your life as a Duelist will be over soon!," Haga hissed out as he examined his hand. However he simply played a weak monster in face down defence position but I noticed that a wicked gleam shine in his eyes which contradicted the sad weepy tone his voice had just held as he set the monster.

"I'm not going to fall for that," Yugi called out. He was carefully analysing the field and his own hand clearly trying to devise a plan as he recalled the Trap that Haga had set. "Then I'll use this card!" Yugi declared. As he did, Yugi activated a Spell card which summoned all his monsters on the field back to his hand and he shuffled it back to the deck in order to redraw a fresh hand.

However despite this turn of event Haga didn't even look phased or annoyed for that matter, in fact if I had to describe his expression it looked more like he was… pleased.

'Oh no! That's exactly what Haga wants.' I realised in my mind. However I couldn't get my warning out fast enough as Yugi summoned out his Kuriboh and he swiftly commanded the little hairball to attack.

 **Kuriboh – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 1, ATK/300, DEF/200**

As predicted Haga's Trap, Parasite Worm activated and destroyed Kuriboh with its' effect subtracting Kuriboh's attack points away from the remainder of Yugi's Life Points.

 **Yugi – LP: 1350 – LP: 1050**

Haga then began to laugh as he revealed that the way Yugi responded was exactly how he wanted it to go and then proceeded to flip over his face down card which turned out to be the Larvae Moth yet the creature was hardly dangerous to many monsters in the game.

 **Larvae Moth – Attribute: Earth, Type: Bug, Level: 2, ATK/500, DEF/400**

 **Larvae Moth – ATK/500 – ATK/650, DEF/400 – DEF/520**

Haga then proceed to equip the Larvae Moth with the Cocoon of Evolution and as the Cocoon materialised onto the field it looked like stringy spider webs wrapping around the Larvae Moth eventually forming into was could only be described as a mutated nut like thing that had the appearance of veins pulsing along its' side.

"I've seen a lot of disgusting things during duels but that definitely tops them all," I muttered. I felt Katherine nod her head as she focused quite keenly on the duel although it seemed we weren't the only ones who were disgusted since the other spectators and even Yugi looked revolted at the scene.

"For five turns my Larvae Moth will be evolving and will become the Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth and then there's nothing that can beat the Great Moth!" Haga bragged. Destroying the Cocoon would be the best way to prevent its' emergence however that was definitely a case of easier said than done as the Cocoon had a defence of two thousand and six hundred points thanks to the Field Power Bonus, making it so that there is only a mere handful of monsters that would be able to destroy the disgusting thing.

 **Cocoon of Evolution – DEF/2000 – DEF/2600**

Yugi was paused for a few moments as he looked over whatever options he had available to him at the time, after all he had to defeat this before five turns were up otherwise he might actually lose this duel and worst of all his deck, Yugi finally made a move by bringing out Gaia the Dark Knight.

 **Gaia the Dark Knight – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 7, ATK/2300, DEF/2100**

Yugi commanded the warrior to attack the Cocoon however the monster was simply too weak to pierce through the Cocoon's defence and as a result whilst Gaia wasn't destroyed by the failed assault, Yugi ended up taking the difference as damage.

 **Yugi – LP: 1050 – LP: 750**

Yugi's friends continue to cheer and encourage him, declaring that he shouldn't let the Cocoon stop him and whilst it was incredibly admirable for them to be so supportive, it was also beginning to get incredibly annoying since they kept interrupting my thoughts, Mai then insulted them again which angered Anzu although Jounouchi held her back from going anything stupid.

"I'm afraid to say that no one's ever been able to break through that Cocoon of Evolution combo," Mai informed the others. This caused all three of them to still and I simply nodded my head to confirm what Mai had just said, no duelist had defeated the creature that was going to emerge from the that disgusting object from what I'd heard.

"What did you say?" Jounouchi and the brunette boy asked in shock. Anzu's expression shifted so that it looked incredibly pathetic for the most part and asked if Mai meant that Yugi really was going to lose however the blonde woman didn't bother to answer her.

Haga simply passed by his turn and in order to prepare for the worst case scenario, Yugi played a monster in face down defence position with his friends continuing to support him and Jounouchi made a comment about getting fired up which caused a spark to appear within Yugi's eyes.

"A duelist can only believe in themselves when the game begins. Cheap insignificant words are of no help to them whatsoever," Mai commented with a snide note in her voice. This simply caused Anzu to claim that their words would reach Yugi's heart and he would win. "You people are as naïve as ever," Mai shot back at the girl. However before anyone else could say anything another voice cut through the quiet.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Katherine's quiet voice practically echoed. This caused everyone to look around me at her and she raised her arm to point at Yugi causing Mai to gasp as Yugi held up his thumb with a smile resting on his face. Anzy then proceeded to act like a child and stick her tongue out at Mai after mocking her earlier declaration but the female duelist wasn't even phased by this as Yugi displayed his idea by summoning out Curse of Dragon.

 **Curse of Dragon: - Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1500**

Yugi then proceeded to attack but instead of aiming for the Cocoon he aimed for the forest field using the Burning Land Spell Card and thanks to this it resulted in the forest being destroyed thus making the Cocoon's defence dropped sharply as its' Field Power Bonus had been lost.

 **Cocoon of Evolution – DEF/2600 – DEF/2000**

With this loss, Gaia's attack strength was more than enough to pierce through the Cocoon and destroy it once and for all, however instead of being worried Haga instead took to laughing rather manically and he revealed that this was the creature's fourth stage as it emerged with an almighty shriek as the Great Moth which Haga claimed was still enough to defeat Yugi despite not being the Perfectly Ultimate one that he'd been aiming for.

 **Great Moth – Attribute: Earth, Type: Insect, Level: 8, ATK/2600, DEF/2500**

Haga mocked Yugi however the duelist wasn't even phased by the sudden turn of events which was quite impressive since this was supposedly his first tournament and yet he seemed to be handling this like a lifelong Pro Duelist even claiming he was imaging the Moth falling before him.

Haga commanded his Great Moth to attack Gaia but at the same time I noticed that Yugi had thrown down a card which I assumed was an attempt to save his knight although Yugi's face down monster of Ruiz was obliterated in the process, Haga declared that Gaia was beaten but Yugi swiftly proceeded to shut him up.

"You sure about that? Haga you don't seem to understand the effect of the card I placed on the field," Yugi revealed as he held up the card for all to see. This caused a look of shock to descend over Haga's face as he stuttered out an incomplete sentence. "The Fusion card joins these two monsters together," Yugi explained. The combination of Gaia and Curse of Dragon floated in the sky ready to face off against the Great Moth.

 **Gaia the Dragon Knight – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon/Fusion, Level: ,7 ATK/2600, DEF/2100**

Seeing as both monsters were airborne and held the same attack points it would be interesting to see how this would go although I noticed that steam was rising off of Gaia as something strange floated around the dueling arena which caused me to crease my eyebrows in contemplation as to what this meant exactly and then once more Haga unleashed a maniacal laugh.

"It's attack increased you say? I wonder about that!" Haga commented. Yugi looked at his newest monster and it turned out the steam was actually the attack strength of Gaia being depleted by one hundred points although Yugi was confused as to why and how this was occurring but eventually declared it was poisonous particles.

"You finally found this out? That's right, Great Moth's Moth Hurricane, when it's used to blow away monsters on the ground, it spread poisonous particles to all its' enemy Monsters! If you don't hurry up, Dragon Knight's attack power will keep decreasing!" Haga explained. He then proceeded to laugh some more as Gaia's points continued to drop every second the poisonous air enshrouded it, Yugi had to do something and fast otherwise his Dragon Knight would be left utterly defenceless and he would lose the duel.

"I have to use this card! the Magical Mist, Makiu!" Yugi declared. The Spell Card summoned pouring rain to thunder down onto the dueling field resulting in the deadly poison being washed away however this didn't stop Haga and after more bragging from the bug-eyed duelist he commanded his Great Moth to attack with the Tornado of Doom destroying Gaia.

 **Yugi – LP: 750 – LP: 50**

Yugi was now in a seriously tight spot however past experience had taught me that no matter how bad a situation was it can still be overcome so long as the right cards are in play.

"Yugi don't give up, you'll find a way," Jounouchi called out to his friend. However this resulted in Mai stating that the winner of this duel was quite clear although Anzu shot back that Yugi was still capable of winning this duel.

"It's no use. What can he do now to turn the tables? Things like friendship and hope have no effect on the outcome of a duel," Mai shot back. This resulted in the brunette girl shouting a load of insults at Mai that I didn't care to listen to as I looked at the faces of the duelists and I noticed something very interesting, it seemed that Yugi was attempting to hold back a laugh from the expression on his face.

"Yugi-chan had no hope picking a fight against the Regional Champion of Japan. By no means did he disgrace himself in this duel, his opponent was just too strong," Mai commented. I simply smirked as she obviously hadn't caught on to the expression that Yugi had on his face although one of Yugi's friends had seen it.

"No Mai-chan," The brunette boy pointed out. The others all turned to look at him confused by his words. "Your prediction turned out to be wrong," He commented. Everyone then proceeded to look up at Yugi and his friends debated about what his expression actually was but I was distracted by a tugging on my arm and so I looked at Katherine.

My little sister raised her arm and pointed at the dueling arena so I turned my attention to the direction and I saw that rolling across the field was a ring of mist and falling from the Great Moth were several drops of water creating a pool of virtual water underneath it.

"What are you laughing for! What's so funny!," Haga called out. The bug duelist only realised this fact after Yugi finally gave in and released an audible laugh whilst I allowed a small smirk to rest on my lips.

"Haga, if you're a duelist… when do you feel the need to laugh? When the duel is running exactly as you want it to and you believe that victory is yours. There would be no other time more appropriate. Right?" Yugi questioned. However Haga didn't seem to understand those words so Yugi explained that his Dragon Knight had simply been the bait and he then proceeded to summon out the monster that would win him this duel, the Demon's Summon.

 **Demon's Summon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 6, ATK/2500, DEF/1200**

"Haga don't you understand what's going on? Why did I use the Makiu card?" Yugi questioned. Haga and Mai both had the same expression of surprise on their faces as they finally saw the rolling waves of mist and the water that drenched the Great Moth, as the Demon's Summon uses electrical based attacks this worked in Yugi's favour.

 **Demon's Summon – ATK/2500 – ATK/3500**

With one swift blot of lighting the Great Moth was fried to crisp ending the duel in Yugi's favour causing his friends to begin cheering whilst Mai was shocked and the other spectators excitedly talked about the duel as they began to walk off to start their own matches or find other people to face off against.

 **Haga – LP: 555 – LP: 0**

I motioned at Katherine for her to follow me as we retreated into the forest bank but we didn't walk far as I wished to speak to Yugi but I would let them deal with that snivelling coward first.

"Quite the duel, I can see how Yugi defeated Seto… but that doesn't necessarily mean that he'll beat us," I commented to Katherine. However instead of laughing or smiling like she normally did, Katherine had a contemplative look on her features. "Katherine what's wrong?" I spoke up as I knelt down to my sister's height.

"That wasn't the boy I bumped into on the docks," Katherine commented as her teeth bit into her lower lip gently. I stood up and gently caressed my sister's hair before turning to face where Yugi and his friends were and then I walked back out into the clearing seeing that Haga had collapsed onto the floor.

"Yugi" I called out. This attracted everyone's attention as they turned to face me and the boy in questioned had an inquisitive look on his face, I walked forward and held out my hand to him, Yugi blinked briefly before placing his own hand within my own. "Impressive duel, you certainly are skilled and that's why you better make it to the finals as that is where I intend to duel you," I finished up.

"Why not here and now," Yugi responded. A smirk rested on his face and I had to admit that he was a rather handsome individual quite different to the boy from the docks.

"Savour the best for last, it makes it all the more sweeter," I spoke. I then pulled my hand back however as I did I caught sight of the upside down pyramid he wore and the eye symbol on it and this caused a small laugh to escape me. "It would seem there is more to you than meets the eye, until next time Yugi," I finished. With that I proceeded to walk back into the trees and as I walked by Katherine she immediately pushed off the tree and followed after me.

"You're right Kathie that isn't the boy from the docks. It would seem this tournament as a hidden agenda," I spoke. Katherine nodded as she raised her right arm and if one were to look close enough they would see the glint of gold covering her fingers, I glanced down at my own right wrist where a silver bracelet with intricate designs carved into its' surface lay.


	3. Chapter 3

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy** Chapter 3: - First Duel

I looked around at the large area we had walked into, it was filled with several types of environments for the duels and several duel arenas accompanied this assorted environment, many of the duel arenas were occupied with other duelists wandering around as they waited for an opponent to show up.

I looked out at the sea as the salty winds gently twirled through by black locks, I glanced down at my duel glove examining the four star chips set into, Kylie was sat on the grassland beneath us with her own duel glove holding five star chips, the both of us had just finished a duel and we were currently allowing ourselves to relax before we tackled the next challenge.

"Cause the field you pick can give your monsters an advantage or disadvantage. Most of my cards are Warriors and Beast-types," A familiar voice carried on the wind. I looked in its' direction to find that Yugi and his friends were also on the grasslands with Jounouchi staring at his deck. I walked up to them but none of them noticed me since they were all focused on trying to answering Jounouchi's question.

"If they're mainly Warriors and Beasts, a meadow would be best," I gently spoke up. However this caused Jounouchi to yell and collapse backwards resulting in me giving off a light scream as I ducked my head into my hair. "I-I'm s-sorry I-I didn't m-mean t-to s-scare you," I stuttered lightly. As I did I also tugged and twisted my fingers together keeping my eyes locked on the grass beneath my feet.

"Hey it's alright we just didn't hear you approach," Yugi's voice called out. I looked up through my fringe to see it was definitely the boy I bumped into on the docks instead of the one that dueled against Haga, Yugi reached out and gripped my hands preventing me from fiddling with them anymore and I properly raised my head to look into his amethyst eyes.

"Katherine!" Kylie's yell echoed. I turned to my big sister who had a look of panic on her face obviously having heard my scream although the minute her eyes found the others the panic faded away and a smile rested on her lips however none of us could say anything as an obnoxious voice cut off any train of thought that any of us had.

"Come on! Give me your star chips and get lost!" The voice ordered. I knew who it was the minute I heard it and it seemed that Anzu did as well, we all turned to see Mai standing by a duel arena, obviously having just won a duel, laughing with her opponent standing behind her having a sour look on his face as he claimed that she cheated since her cards were face down yet she knew exactly what they were which did indeed sound strange.

"That is a secret," Mai shot back at the duelist with a wink. She then proceed to laugh once more and the duelist ran off although she soon stopped when her eyes fell on us and she got a very strange look in her eyes. "Yugi-chan how are the duels going?" Mai questioned as she approached us. However she didn't even give Yugi a chance to respond as she swiftly picked up his duel glove to examine it. "So you have three star chips Yugi-chan? Maybe we should duel?" Mai suggested.

Anzu quietly encouraged Yugi to duel Mai just so she 'would be beaten into a pulp' – despite Duel Monsters not actually involving any physical actions against the opponent – however instead of Mai challenging Yugi she proceeded to choose Jounouchi to be her opponent which surprised all of us especially Jounouchi but he soon recovered and stated that he had hoped Mai would ask to duel him.

"Don't get me wrong. As a duelist, it's only natural that I would rather fight against Yugi-chan or Kylie-san but if I lose all my star chips it's all over for me, right? I'll start by dueling against opponents who look weak enough to earn star chips. Then I will fight Yugi-chan and Kylie-san after that" Mai commented.

"I say go for it, you'll eventually have to face someone with more experience so you might as well get it over and done with," Kylie commented. This got looks of surprise from everyone, except for me, and I'm pretty sure that Anzu shot my sister a glare but Kylie didn't even look like she saw the glare.

The two brunettes attempted to convince Yugi to duel against Mai however neither Yugi nor Jounouchi listened to them as Jounouchi promptly agreed to Mai's challenge after Yugi encouraged him to do so, Jounouchi waffled on a bit about how he'd be reminded of him running away if he did so now, then the two of them proceeded up to the dueling arena with both of them wagering a single star chip on this duel but Joey soon freaked out as the field wasn't exactly what he had been expecting.

"The layout of our battlefield is forty percent mountain, forty percent forest and the leftover twenty percent is meadow," Mai commented. It was obvious that Mai chose this specific arena because its' Field Power Bonus most likely worked in her monsters' favour.

"Jounouchi-kun, calm down. It's okay! You can still use the meadow as an advantage for your cards!" Yugi swiftly reassured his friend. This allowed Jounouchi to get a hold of himself and he then looked at Mai with a serious glint in his honey coloured eyes.

"Kujaku Mai, I want to ask you one thing before we duel," Jounouchi spoke up. Mai's expression clearly showed that she was surprised by this sudden turn of events. "What did you come to this island for? For fame? Or maybe the prize money?" Jounouchi asked. It was quite the interesting question as many people had different reasons for dueling.

"Both. Of course, if I get the prize money I will travel around the world! Maybe buy a house in France, buy all the luxuries!" Mai informed us. Sadly her reason was one that I had heard way to often from many duelists, it was truly depressing that the only thing they seemed to care about was money.

"For something, so worthless?" Jounouchi commented. This resulted in Mai getting rather angry at her blonde opponent demanding to know why he had come to the island with Jounouchi commented that he had something to protect, something more important than his life and at long last the duel finally got underway.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000**

 **Mai – LP: 2000**

"It's my turn, Masaki the Legendary Swordsmaster," Jounouchi stated after he examined his hand for a brief moment. He threw down a card as the warrior was projected onto the field.

 **Masaki the Legendary Swordsmaster – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1100, DEF/1100**

 **Masaki the Legendary Swordsmaster – ATK/1100 – ATK/1430, DEF/1100 – DEF/1430**

However Mai began humming as she waved her hand over her cards which were all face down on her dueling podium, I furrowed my eyebrows at this yet I noticed a strange sickly sweet scent wafting about that itched at my nose, Jounouchi eventually got tired and openly questioned Mai's actions.

"It's a simple reason. I know what all my cards are," Mai explained. This freaked Jounouchi out at bit and he questioned if Mai was actually being serious but she didn't bother giving him an answer as she chose her card which was the Harpie Lady.

 **Harpie Lady – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400**

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1300 – ATK/1690, DEF/1400 – DEF/1820**

"I'll take you on. Go!" Jounouchi declared. However this simply showed how lacking in experience Jounouchi was as all monsters that were bound to the land had a severe weakness against monsters that could fly as they couldn't attack them and this resulted in the destruction of Jounouchi's monster.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1410**

Mai then waved her hands over her face down cards once more and she slid a card into the Spell and Trap zone without looking at it once again which got Jounouchi to start freaking out. Due to the pressure that was being put on her friend, Anzu's face took on a look of worry as the rest of us silently observed Jounouchi descending into panic about Mai's apparent psychic ability.

"Does Jounouchi really have no chance of winning?!" The brunette boy asked. I knew from experience that nobody is ever ready to take on an opponent with more experience than them but that didn't mean that Jounouchi had no chance of winning the duel, fortunately Yugi had the common sense to try and give Jounouchi some advice about not being caught out by Mai's card trick however it didn't seem like Jounouchi heard Yugi as he summoned out another monster.

 **Tiger Axe – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1100**

 **Tiger Axe – ATK/1300 – ATK/1690, DEF/1100 – DEF/1430**

Jounouchi then proceeded to have Tiger Axe attack Harpie Lady despite Yugi having called out on the land based monster's weakness when he had made the same mistake earlier resulting in Tiger Axe's destruction and Jounouchi losing more of his Life Points.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1410 – LP:1020**

"You can't beat my Harpie Lady with cards of that level," Mai bragged. She then proceeded to play another card face down in the Spell and Trap zone. "It's my turn. Every turn that passes… Harpie Lady will become more charming, beautiful and stronger," Mai stated.

Jounouchi ran over his cards briefly before finally choosing one although he decided to play it face down defence position which in this scenario seemed to be the best option however Mai activated the card she just played revealing it as the Cyber Bondage spell.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1690 – ATK/2190, DEF/1820 – DEF/2320**

Harpie Lady then swiftly destroyed Jounouchi's only line of defence which caused Mai to laugh as she taunted Jounouchi over the fact that he hadn't realised the state that he was in at the moment concerning this duel.

"How can she identify her cards without looking at them? Is this woman an esper?" Jounouchi questioned as panic swirled within his eyes. Yugi tried to get his blonde friend to calm down, I turned my eyes to Kylie to see that her lips had thinned and she was running a finger across her star chips obviously debating the same thing I had just thought of, giving Jounouchi one of our star chips to let him continue in the tournament if he did lose so that he could protect that important thing.

Yugi's friends tried to make sure that Jounouchi kept a level head however this simply caused Mai to call out to them and quoted something that Anzu had said during Yugi's battle against Haga – something about hearts reaching each other – and claimed that if this was true then they should let Jounouchi win.

"Don't you get it? It's impossible. You have to remember this too boy, if you only fool around with your friends you aren't a true duelist. Even your friends today… could become your enemies tomorrow. This is what a duelist is, a duelist cannot trust anyone but themselves! Remember your loss today and engrave it in your mind forever," Mai lectured. This caused the panic in Jounouchi's eyes to be replaced with anger at the woman's words.

Before my sister or I could interject a light began to glow and it was so bright that I was forced to cover my eyes however when it dimmed down, in Yugi's place was the person who had dueled against Haga causing me to blink like an owl for a brief moment.

"You'll be able to win Jounouchi-kun, I'll show you with a single sentence. Jounouchi-kun, I'll only say one sentence: something you can see, yet cannot see," This person commented. Jounouchi repeated those words whilst Mai simply began to laugh mockingly stating that Jounouchi couldn't win with only a sentence to help him however I was beginning to get sick and tired of this damned woman's mocking and berating manner of speech as she demanded to see how this would work.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled, my patience having finally snapped. I felt everyone look at me in surprise but I simply looked at Mai with my black eyes having taken the form of obsidian daggers. "You don't know what it means to be a real duelist! You can sit there and spout your foolish beliefs but real duelists help and learn from each other! They build life long bonds during matches and those bonds are only strengthen no matter how much they go through, so shut up already!" I yelled.

A few seconds of silence passed before what I had just done hit me like a ton of bricks so I immediately ducked my head inside my hair and curled next to Kylie and took a tight grip of some of the denim fabric of her jeans however Mai simply unleashed another laugh and then they finally returned to the duel with Jounouchi having finally calmed down and seemed to be trying to strategize some type of plan to defeat Mai's Harpie Lady.

As we waited for Jounouchi to make a move that same sickly sweet smell invaded my nose and I coughed a little at how rich it was but then I realised something, the smell was originating from Mai's podium and I understood that the smell was actually perfume.

"Now boy, it's your turn," Mai called out. I glanced at Jounouchi to see that he had probably realised the same thing that I had and he proved this by calling Mai out on it.

"I got it, I figured out her card trick! She sprayed a different perfume on each card so she just has to smell them in order to find out what each card is. Cards can be seen… but that smell cannot be seen. Something you can see, yet cannot see," Jounouchi explained. I couldn't help the smile that curled onto my lips, glad to see that the boy had managed to us the stranger's words to see through the act that Mai was pulling

Let's just say Mai was absolutely shocked by the fact that Jounouchi had been able to unravel her little gimmick, Jounouchi admitted that he had been slightly freaked out by what Mai had done but now that his head was clear he wouldn't be caught off guard so easily but that didn't mean this duel was won just yet, Jounouchi still had to find a way to defeat Harpie Lady and whatever else Mai had stashed away in her deck.

"Even if you found out my trick… you're still a hundred years too early to beat me in Duel Monsters!" Mai exclaimed. However Jounouchi shot back that now he started thinking of Mai as a wall to overcome and he made his move by bringing out his Baby Dragon in defence mode.

 **Baby Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 3, ATK/1200, DEF/900**

However this simply caused Mai to laugh and claimed even if she did defeat Baby Dragon it wasn't like Jounouchi's Life Points would take a hit, Mai then proceeded to use the Spell Card known as Kaleidoscope – Magnificent Doppelgangers which basically turned her one Harpie Lady into three although the two clones had a different wings, hairstyle and hair colour to the original.

"No way? He just had the upper hand as well…!" Anzu complained. The brunette boy claimed that there had to be a way for Jounouchi to win with Anzu asking him for answers about that fact however as he didn't know anything about Duel Monsters he suggested that they ask Yugi.

"It's too early to say he lost," This other Yugi commented. He was right after all it was always like Kylie had believed and I had learned, a single card played at the most crucial of moments could turn an entire duel on its' head, but we couldn't tell Jounouchi when to play his cards.

"He's right, this part of the game is all up to the duelist if they can't play their cards at exactly the right time by themselves then they aren't fit to duel," Kylie agreed. Jounouchi's face showed that he was worried as it seemed that he didn't have a single card to play against the Harpie Ladies which would ensure their destruction with Mai bragging the card she had played made them more charming and beautiful with each passing turn, fortunately they couldn't attack on the turn Kaleidoscope was used.

"Don't give up Jounouchi-kun. Kujaku Mai has continually used Spell cards to increase the power of Harpie Lady and then duplicating it into other copies. But within lies a weak point you can use to turn the tables," Other Yugi called out to Jounouchi. Jounouchi latched on to this idea and realised that with only the Harpie Ladies as her monsters by destroying them it effectively ended the duel.

Jounouchi then seemed to hit upon an idea but it appeared that the card he needed wasn't in his hand meaning that he had to draw for it and it seemed he was nervous, after all his entire strategy depended on getting that one card now, fortunately it seemed Jounouchi's deck answered his call and he brought forth the Time Magician.

 **Time Magician – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 2, ATK/500, DEF/400**

Jounouchi activated the Time Magician's Special Effect known as Time Roulette which would cause one thousand years to pass on the dueling arena, however this move carried a single inherent risk, if the dial landed on a skull then Jounouchi's dragon would be destroyed and he would lose the duel.

Fortunately the dial landed on a Time Machine and so Baby Dragon was evolved into Thousand Dragon and it also had the effect of withering Mai's Harpie Ladies into feeble old creatures which resulted in their power being returned to normal.

 **Thousand Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

 **Harpie Ladies – ATK/2190 – ATK/1300**

Jounouchi commanded his dragon to attack and it wiped out all three Harpie Ladies resulting in a One Turn Kill victory for Jounouchi and the blonde stated to Mai that after one thousand years something didn't change, this thing is something that can be seen but not seen – meaning friendship – with that over me and Kylie turned away and headed off to find another duel.

 **Mai – LP: 2000 – LP: 0**

"He's going to be a great duelist one day," I commented. Kylie let out a laugh but it wasn't mocking more like approving and she flashed a smile down at me.

"I think you're right," Kylie agreed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 4: - More Than Meets The Eye

"I've got to admit, it surprised me when you snapped at Mai like that Katherine, normally it's me doing those sorts of things," I spoke. Me and Katherine had settled down to enjoy some of the food I had packed for the tournament.

"Sorry, I just got so mad at the way Mai was talking and I just… you know," Katherine explained. I laughed lightly at my sister's shy personality but it was nice to finally see her come out of her shell around other people; once the both of us had finished, I placed the rubbish in a separate pouch of the duffel bag and would dispose of it later.

The two of us then set off to search for more people to duel in order to gain the star chips necessary to get inside the castle, we had returned to a more forest based area with some meadow portions and mountains scattered about, I glanced up at the sky to see the sun had at least several more hours before it would begin to set giving me and Katherine plenty of time to find more duels.

We stopped in front of a podium where an argument was erupting between two duelists which already had quite the crowd of spectators surrounding them with many of the crowd murmuring in hushed tones, so I stepped closer in order to see exactly what was causing all of the commotion.

"Look you lost so don't be a sore loser and claim I cheated, just get the hell off this island you wimp," The man on the left yelled. He looked to only be in his twenties with short choppy brown hair that ended at his neck with angry green eyes, he wore a simple short sleeved black shirt with a pair of blue jeans and some blue converse on his feet.

The person he was speaking to, who had obviously been his opponent, stood across from him and was shaking with his head bowed allowing his blonde hair to shroud his face, he wore a long sleeved red jumper with a pair of black jeans and simple red trainers covered his feet.

The shaking was slowly getting worse and I was worried that he might end up throwing a punch at the man across from him so I immediately strode my way through the crowd and placed my hand on the shaking man's shoulder and this startled him causing him to whip around allowing me to see crystal clear blue eyes set into a tanned face of man only slightly older than myself.

"Calm down, getting angry won't help anything. As for you I suggest that you learn to bite your tongue and show more respect to your opponents," I spoke. The man I had just insulted glared at me as I gently wrapped my hand around the arm of his opponent and attempted to guide him away from the surrounding crowd which had fallen silent after I had stepped into the fight, however before I could get far a voice cut through the air with a scathing tone.

"Just who the hell do you think you are?!" The man yelled at me demanding an answer. I turned around to face him as I made sure that the other man was passed behind me into the crowd so as to make sure that this fool in front of me didn't try anything or end up getting hurt by angering the poor individual anymore than he already had.

"Kylie Hope," I responded. The murmuring of the crowd started up again with hushed excitement becoming tangible in the air and I began to feel that familiar static tingle that came with the anticipation of a duel beginning to itch in my fingers.

"Never heard of you" The man shot back. This simply caused more surprise to ripple through the surrounding spectators as they seemed confused as to why this man didn't even know my name but I didn't even give it the barest reaction unlike everyone else, I saw Katherine shake her head at the man's statement.

"Then you're either a newcomer or you live under a rock," I responded. I turned on my heel and began to head away from this fool as it seemed that my anticipation would have to wait and to be fair I didn't think he would be a good opponent any way.

"If you're that good prove it in a duel" The man called out. I heaved a sigh and turned back around deciding that I might as well face him in order to teach him a lesson however before I got too far, something jerked me back slightly and I turned to see the other man behind with his hand around my right arm.

"Wait please?" He asked. I turned slightly towards him just to let him know that I was indeed listening to what he had to say. "He took both of my star chips when I only bet one," The man stated. I quirked an eyebrow as I realised that this must have been why the argument had started in the first place.

"Don't worry about me," I responded. I gave the man a gentle smile and then removed my arm from his grip and walked over to the man, he smirked and then proceeded to head for the red podium whilst I made my way up to the blue podium and once at the top I set my deck down as I turned to look at my opponent "Might I know your name?" I asked.

"Rick Ashton," The man responded. He held up his duel glove to show that he had five star chips settled in the large white ring. "Now how many are you betting?" He asked. A wicked gleam appeared in his eyes as he waited for my response, I plucked all of my star chips free and settled them down on my podium.

"Five," I calmly respond. A gasp ripped from the crowd and I could practically hear Katherine's thoughts of me being an idiot, Rick's eyes widened for a split second before narrowing back to normal and a wicked grin to match his wicked eyes appeared on his face as he removed his five and threw them onto the podium as well.

I drew the first five cards of my hand and examined them to begin preparing my strategy with the field that we were playing on being part forest on my side and part meadow on Rick's side.

 **Kylie – LP: 2000**

 **Rick – LP: 2000**

"I'll go first and bring out Ninja Master Hanzo," Rick declared. He threw down the card and thus the creature was projected onto the field and since it was a Warrior type it would get a Field Power Bonus from the meadow.

 **Ninja Master Hanzo – Attribute: Dark, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1800, DEF/1000**

 **Ninja Master Hanzo – ATK/1800 – ATK/2340, DEF/1000 – DEF/1300**

"Since it was normal summoned I can add one card with Ninjitsu in its' name to my hand," Rick informed, a cocky smirk on his face. I reached towards my deck and picked up my next card upon seeing it I immediately knew what to do for the moment.

"First I summon out my Gemini," I stated. As I placed the card down my creature was projected although she initially appeared as a cluster of stars, the stars then formed into two tall elven eared women with one having purple hair and the other having blonde hair, both had the same piercing auburn eyes and silvery dress that flowed to their knees with their hands intertwined.

 **Gemini – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 4, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

"Exactly what is that going to do," Rick asked unimpressed. I had to admit that whilst my Gemini didn't look like much of a fighter, her Special Effect more than made up for

"My Gemini's Special Effect allows me to select one of my opponents monster and halve its' attack and defence points, of course you do get a Half Token in return," I explained. Rick stiffened up as he realised that he only had one monster and the smirk on lips was enough to confirm his fears. "Gemini, Half Magic!" I commanded. The ladies obliged as they summoned forth a crackling orb of red energy and threw it at Rick's monster.

 **Ninja Master Hanzo – ATK/2340 – ATK/1170, DEF/1300 – DEF/650**

Once the reduction was done a red after image occurred and a duplicate of Ninja Master Hanzo appeared beside him, Rick gritted his teeth and I could hear the grating all the way across the duel arena.

"Now Gemini, destroy Ninja Master Hanzo with Twined Magic Blast," I spoke. Once more my monster summoned a crackling orb of energy although this one was a blue colour and my opponent's monster was completely swallowed by the magical energy.

 **Rick – LP: 2000 – LP: 1370**

"To end my turn, I place two cards face down," I finished. I placed said cards down in the Spell and Trap zone, I raised my eyes to stare at my opponent as his fist shook with anger at the fact that I had beaten his monster but Rick didn't say anything and instead angrily drew a card from his deck however his anger didn't last long as a smirk took over his face.

"I summon forth Onna Ninja Yae," Rick declared. The monster was projected on to the field but I was concerned that this monster might have some kind of Special Effect from the way that Rick had smirked.

 **Onna Ninja Yae – Attribute: Wind, Type: Warrior, Level: 3, ATK/1100, DEF/200**

 **Onna Ninja Yae – ATK/1100 – ATK/1430, DEF/200 – DEF/260**

"Thanks to its' Special Effect by discarding one Wind Attribute monster, I can send all your Spell and Trap cards back to your hand," Rick taunted. He activated the effect and so I placed the cards back into my hand, I was just thankful neither of his monsters were strong enough to destroy Gemini although I did notice that Rick had played a face down card in the Spell and Trap zone.

I took a deep breath as I closed my eyes and began to think about the different scenarios that could play out involving that face down card, that card might have been played in order to stop me from attacking or summoning but in order to continue this duel I had to perform one of those actions.

"Hey what's going on?" A familiar voice cut through the silence. I opened my eyes to find that Yugi and his friends had arrived to watch the duel with Katherine shyly explaining the situation to them, I turned back to the duel and withdrew another card.

"I activate the Spell card, Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw two more cards," I began my turn. Once I picked up my two cards I smiled and flicked one of my cards around so that Rick could see it. "Thanks to this monster's Special Effect I'm allowed to automatically summon him when he is moved from deck to hand via a card effect, come forth Aquila," I called out. The monster appeared initially only as a cluster of stars before taking on the lustrous brown coat of mighty eagle.

 **Aquila – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged-Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1600, DEF/1300**

"Thank a bunch, you stupid girl. Now I can activate my Ninjitsu – Technique of Super Transformation," Rick called out. I furrowed my eyebrows as Rick picked up the face down card and showed it to me. "By sacrificing my Onna Ninja Yae and your Aquila, I'm allowed to Special Summon a Dragon, Dinosaur or Sea-Serpent type monster, whose level is equal or less than the total level of the monster sacrifice, to the field," Rick explained.

I gritted my teeth quietly as Aquila screeched in pain when it was destroyed as was Lady Ninja Yae with both of them reforming into another monster that was a human dressed in blue with Rick referring to it as Blue Dragon Ninja.

 **Blue Dragon Ninja– Attribute: Water, Type: Sea Serpent, Level: 5, ATK/2100, DEF/1200**

"Now attack and destroy that filthy Gemini," Rick commanded. The new ninja did as instructed and my monster was annihilated however the words that he had spoken were ones that should never have been said in my presence as I did not take insults to my monsters lightly.

 **Kylie – LP: 2000 – LP: 1700**

"He really shouldn't have said that," Katherine muttered. She was right, how dare this person insult my cards and I could feel my growing anger coiling through my body causing it to shake, I then heard Rick's annoying laugh and I raised my head to look at him as a mocking look adorned his face.

"Are you upset?" Rick mockingly asked. However this only made my normal calm eyes swirling like a raging storm as I narrowed them causing Rick to flinch at the fierceness of my glare, I heard a groan come from Katherine, obviously wishing my opponent some sort of mercy but he wouldn't be receiving any from me.

"Hardly, I'm angry. How dare you… insult my friends! I'm going to make you pay for that comment," I hissed out. Rick raised an eyebrow at my statement, others from the crowd began to murmur in confusion due to my words although Rick then broke down into peals of laughter.

"They're just cards," Rick commented through his hysterics. I simply shook my head as it was a common comment that I had heard from pretty much everyone, even Seto would continually say that they're just cards but I knew that they were so much more than ink on paper.

"No, you're as blind as everyone else," I responded. With that I reached out and placed my fingers against my deck feeling its' strength and reassurance flow into me, I retracted my fingers and ended my turn by placing two cards face down.

Rick rolled his eyes at my statement and simply drew his card with him summoning out another ninja monster in order to bolster his ranks and he set a face down card in the Spell and Trap zone, but all I had to do was wait until she got here which if I was right wouldn't be too long.

 **Ninja Master Sasuke – Attribute: Light, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1800, DEF/1000**

 **Ninja Master Sasuke – ATK/1800 – ATK/2340, DEF/1000 – DEF/1300**

It was thankful that direct attacks couldn't be ordered in this tournament otherwise I would have lost but that wasn't going to happen, I smiled and drew my card, glad to see that my instinct hadn't failed me as I played the card bringing out my most trusted companion, a startling beautiful monster with auburn hair tied in a bun with small tendrils flowing down as her silvery eyes locked onto my opponent's monster, an ancient Grecian dress covering her, my signature card Andromeda.

 **Andromeda – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2600, DEF/2300**

"I activate the Equip Spell Black Pendant giving my treasured Andromeda an extra five hundred attack points," I spoke. Rick didn't seem phased in the least although I noticed his eyes flicking down to the card he currently had face down but that slightest flinch brought an inkling into exactly what he was planning.

 **Andromeda – ATK/2600 – ATK/3100**

"I then activate another Spell, Angel's Charity letting me draw three cards in exchange for two being discarded," I spoke up. Rick seemed quite annoyed by my move obviously waiting for me to declare an attack but not until I was slightly more prepared for it. "I then use Resurrection of the Dead to revive my Taurus," I stated and the russet coloured bull with golden horns emerged onto the field.

 **Taurus – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level: 3, ATK/1500, DEF/1300**

 **Taurus – ATK/1500 – ATK/1950, DEF/1300 – DEF/1690**

"What but I never destroyed that monster," Rick exclaimed in surprise. It wasn't all that surprising and to be frank the explanation should have been quite obvious to begin with.

"You didn't, I discarded him. Now for my last card play I activate the Spell Cyclone and destroy your face down card," I declared. Rick's face began to twitch as he realised I had figured out his little game, the whirlwind ripped through Rick's face down revealing it to have been Mirror Force. "With that nasty Trap out the way, Andromeda destroy his Blue Dragon Ninja, with Constellation Flash," I commanded. She complied by sending out a burst of starlight.

 **Rick – LP: 1370 – LP: 370**

"Your entire strategy revolves around that Blue Dragon Ninja and without it you're finished," I commented, ending my turn. However this only seemed to enrage Rick even more as he angrily drew a card from his deck and so I shot a glance down to Katherine who nodded and she quietly disappeared into the crowd of spectators.

"I don't think so. I activate two Equip Spells, Burning Spear and Horn of the Unicorn putting both on Ninja Master Sasuke increasing its' attack points by fourteen hundred points," Rick practically yelled.

 **Ninja Master Sasuke – ATK/2340 – ATK/3740, DEF/1300 – DEF/1100**

"Now attack her Andromeda," Rick commanded. However in that instant I seized my own face down card and flicked it over knowing that it would cost me life points but he wouldn't destroy Andromeda.

"I activate my Trap, Constellation Prison. This Trap allows me to sacrifice one of my monsters in exchange for you being unable to attack for three turns. My Taurus is sacrificed for this act," I called out. The magic bull glowed brightly before dispersing into constellations and forming a barrier in front of Andromeda blocking the attack.

"Ha, what good has that done, you're going to lose the moment I'm out," Rick commented. This man didn't even know how to play with half a deck let alone a full one so it was no shock that he didn't even think I might have another strategy in mind.

"Man that guy is a bastard, how can Kylie take listening to his egoistical rubbish?" I heard Jounouchi say. Although I didn't respond to the boy, my answer would have been that I didn't take any of his pathetic nonsense seriously since it was as he said, utter rubbish.

"Maybe she just doesn't care what he says after all she doesn't look scared," The brunette boy commented. At least someone had my back in this but then I heard an interesting hum echo from the area where Yugi and his friends were stood.

"I don't why Kylie didn't allow Andromeda to be destroyed after all the Black Pendant deals five hundred points of damage to the opponent when it is sent to the graveyard thus she technically would have won the duel," Other Yugi's voice echoed.

"Simple Yugi. He's not destroying Andromeda," I hissed out. Rick flinched at the anger that radiated through my voice as I kept my eyes pinned on my hand and it landed on a card that would win me the duel but it would cause Andromeda to be sacrificed.

" _My lady, please use it. You're needed on this island, I can sense it, there is an important destiny lying before you starting here. We all know how you care for us that is why we are so willing to be sacrificed_ ," A familiar voice spoke but no one else reacted like they heard it which was no surprise.

"I activate the Spell card Ara. Once per turn if I tribute a monster then you will take damage equal to half of its' attack points, I choose my Andromeda," I announced. Rick's face paled as Andromeda was consumed by light which then flew towards Rick and ploughed into him.

 **Rick – LP: 370 – LP: 0**

"No way, no. You had to have cheated," Rick screamed incapable of believing his own eyes. I couldn't help the scoff that escape me as I planted a hand on my hip whilst the rest of the crowd seemed unsettled upon hearing the baseless I had been hit with so suddenly.

"You're the one who cheated. You stole your previous opponent's Star Chips and would no doubt have attempted the same thing had I not bet all of mine. You're a foolish and pathetic excuse for a duelist and its' high time you learned there is a penalty for cheaters," I lectured. Katherine had cropped up on Rick's side and she extended her right hand pointing her golden clad fingers at Rick and then the man fainted as she disappeared once again.

Everyone panicked as they raced to him but upon confirming he was alright before simply assumed he had fainted from shock and anger so they left him alone although I did notice, Rick's previous opponent waiting for me after coming back from Rick's side and in his hand lay all five of Rick's star chips.

"Here you are," He spoke. I reached out and plucked three star chips which I inserted into my duel glove and then turned to go over to Katherine who had returned to her original position as if she had never left it. "What about the other two?" He called out to me.

"You said you lost two right?" I questioned. He nodded numbly and then, after realising what I was implying, with glee inserted the star chips back into his glove and then bowed to me out of respect. "Name?" I asked.

"Michael Godwin," He responded. I turned around and held out my hand to him and he put his own in it and I shot him one of my smiles which caused a red blush to spread across his cheeks.

"Let's duel some time Michael," I finished and let his hand go. Michael nodded and the rushed off, I turned and saw Other Yugi and his friends were still waiting around with their many of their eyes blinking in surprise except for Other Yugi who held a smirk on his face. "It was the right thing to do," I responded to their unspoken question.

"By the way since it's apparent we'll be running into each other, his name otherwise I'll keep calling him the brunette boy," I stated. As I spoke, I jutted my hand in said brunette's direction which had Jounouchi breaking down into peals of laughter.

"Honda Hiroto," Other Yugi introduced. With that I nodded, then me and Katherine set off once again hopefully to find better dueling opponents.


	5. Chapter 5

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to .1 for the reviews**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 5: - Saving Our Friend

I hummed a small tune as me and Kylie continued walking on to try and find another duelist for either of us to have a go at in order to receive the ten star chips necessary as Kylie had informed me of what she heard during her duel with Rick, suddenly a scream for help cut through the calm quiet that surrounded us even causing a few birds to fly into the sky.

Kylie's immediate reaction was to freeze in her stride and she then swiftly twisted on her heel to face the direction the scream came from and so the two of us immediately rushed off in order to find out what was going on, we dashed along a path lined with trees and came out into a clearing encircled by more trees with two individuals standing in the centre of the clearing.

One of them was a tall tanned man clad in a suit with sunglasses covering his eyes preventing me from seeing them although he had short brown hair at the back with a large portion sticking up even further out than Honda's hair making it appear to form the shape of an antenna and with one of his arms he held the person who had most likely screamed for help which was a young boy.

The young boy had short brown hair although his eyes where closed as he writhed against the arm that kept him prisoner, he wore a button up, long-sleeved pink shirt with blue jeans and a green, no-sleeved parka style jacket over his shirt, the boy continued to cry out for help.

"Alright!" I heard a familiar voice call out. I snapped my head in its' direction as Yugi and his friends came running up from another path with Honda leading the charge as he ran straight for the thug who had turned around and the boy kept begging for help, he managed to lock his arms around the thug and threw him into the air causing the thug to let go of the kid.

However it seemed that this guy wouldn't be done in so easily as he righted himself allowing him to easily land on his feet and then pushed off with a kick aimed towards Honda, however this attack didn't connect as Kylie had gotten in the way and used her own arms to block the strike causing the man to push off of her instead but she easily maintained her balance with her by the stance she held.

"You ok?" Kylie asked Honda. As my sister spoke, she dropped her arms from their crossed position, the brunette boy simply nodded however during their distraction the thug had picked up the boy again with one arm as I rushed over to my sister's side with the others quickly joining us as well as the kid cried out once again.

"Wait! Damn you, that's not right," Jounouchi snapped. Although the thug stated that it would become troublesome and ordered all of us to leave, he then turned around and informed us that all of the boy's star chips were gone as evidence by his empty Duel Glove.

"That's not it! They were stolen! Both my star chips and my cards!" The boy cried out in protest. I felt my heart twist at those words, to steal the insignificant – in the long run anyway – star chips was one thing, but a duelist's deck was practically their own soul, that was something I couldn't forgive.

"It doesn't matter! Duelists who don't have star chips can't stay here," The thug commented. He then proceeded to walk away from us mostly likely down towards the docks to put the kid in a boat so that he would be sent home, I looked at Kylie with a pleading look in my eyes and she groaned once she noticed it.

"Not one word, Katherine. We're going, ok, no need to panic," Kylie reassured. I flashed her a dazzling smile and she smiled at me, Yugi and his friends insisted on coming with us as well. "Keep up then since we need to run," Kylie added. With that she proceeded to run after the thug with the rest of us swiftly giving chase.

We soon reached the docks and I saw the boy had already been tossed into a boat with Haga also in it and an unconscious Rick behind him, I suspected that he would be like that for a few more days, as we ran up I heard the boy quietly complain about if only his star chips hadn't been stolen.

"Hey! You!" Yugi called out as we approached. The boy turned to face us, allowing me to see his brown eyes, as we stopped a few steps away from the end of the pier, the thug who had carried him off seemed to be annoyed by our reappearance. "Who stole your star chips from you? Which person?" Yugi asked. I cracked a smile at Yugi completely blanking the guard's expression instead being solely focused on helping out the poor boy.

"I couldn't see his face because there was a handkerchief around it. He challenged me suddenly to a duel," The boy began. After confirming that it was at the grassland ring we'd found him and the thug by, the boy finished explaining that the moment he had put his deck and chips down, the thief stole them right away and then took off so we promised to get them back for him.

"This boat will depart from here in thirty minutes. That's the time limit," The thug informed us. Of course this resulted in Kylie shooting him a very withering glare before looking back at the boy with her normal gentleness.

"Then we'll just get back before then," Kylie commented. Everyone backed her up on this although I wanted to slap Jounouchi when he asked if, if it was he who caught the thief, the boy would give him half his star chips as a reward; everyone's faces descended into expression of exasperation or shock but then Jounouchi turned around and began to walk back to the arena we'd just been by.

"Don't be an idiot!" Honda snapped. He clearly meant the bribe Jounouchi had attempted to extract with the blonde claiming it was a joke, by this point we had almost arrive at the clearing where the duel arena was located but Jounouchi was worried since we didn't really have any clues to go off searching for the thief.

"The star chips were stolen in the ring over there just before," Yugi responded. He then walked around Jounouchi and ran up to the duel arena before sitting himself down in front of it, I admired the confidence that he carried himself with and I couldn't help but feel a little envious of it as I only felt that confident when I dueled but that was only because everything seemed to fade away.

"What's going on Yugi?" Jounouchi asked. Yugi responded that criminals normally returned to the scene of the crime with Anzu agreeing with him although the other boys insisted on taking a break causing Kylie to roll her eyes at their laziness whilst I allowed a light laugh to escape from me.

Before anyone could comment on my laugh or even anything in general a rustling from the bushes occurred and a short boy wearing a purple hat with a purple M against a white background in a box and a bandana across his face covering everything identifiable about him except his grey eyes, he also wore a red shirt with a white collar that had orange and white stripped long sleeves, blue pants and purple coloured trainers.

"I found you Yugi!" The thief declared. Thanks to the bandana his voice was muffled yet it still sounded familiar and even his eyes looked familiar to me as well, I turned to Kylie who nodded her head showing that she had also seen the similarities, the others shot words around us but Yugi stopped them and agreed to duel against the thief before he even asked.

"If he tries to steal Yugi's star chips, I won't let him go" Honda promised. I'm plenty sure that none of us would be letting that boy get away if he did try and steal any of the young boy's star chips especially since we still had a promise to keep to the boy at the docks.

"Don't run away!" Jounouchi snapped at the stranger. However my eyes were locked onto Yugi or more appropriately the strange upside down pyramid that he was wearing around his neck.

"What's that pyramid that Yugi's wearing?" I asked. The other's turned to look at my before raising their gaze to settle on the boy that I was speaking of although Kylie wisely kept a weather eye on the thief whilst Yugi's friends decided to answer my question

"Oh… that's his Millennium Puzzle," Jounouchi answered. However that second to last word caught my undividable attention and my head immediately snapped in Jounouchi's direction with Kylie's head also doing the exact same thing.

"Millennium Puzzle!?" Me and Kylie questioned in unison. Before any of the others could respond to our outcry a light shone from the blue podium and when I turned to look, I saw that the Other Yugi had come out once again and he seemed prepared to duel the thief with both of them betting five star chips… which was all Yugi had.

The others noticed that the thief wasn't wearing a Duel Glove which meant he hadn't been invited to the tournament causing me to wonder exactly how he had gotten onto the island, Pegasus wasn't the sort to let an unwelcomed stowaway simply waltz about unobserved on his island… then again technically Anzu and Honda were unwelcomed stowaways waltzing about the island unobserved so maybe the card creator was growing senile despite his youthful age.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

 **Thief – LP: 2000**

"Yugi, I have to beat you! Man-Eating Plant in attack mode," The thief declared. It was clear he was using the deck that he stole from the boy and that was the most important thing that we had to return to him at the very least.

 **Man-Eating Plant – Attribute: Earth, Type: Plant, Level: 2, ATK/800, DEF/600**

"My turn! I'll challenge that… with this!," Other Yugi declared as he played his card. Projected onto the field was a monster that I recognised as the Fortress Protecting, Winged Dragon.

 **Fortress Protecting, Winged Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

Since his monster was stronger than the plant that the thief had played, Other Yugi commanded his dragon to attack, obliterating the plant creature in a furious storm of fire which caused the thief to raise his arms in order to protect himself from the holographic fire but it faded away allowing him to drop his arms.

 **Thief – LP: 2000 – LP: 1400**

"You can't win over my monsters by stealing others' star chips. Because your heart is not in your cards," Other Yugi commented. Those were some very deep and meaningful words that I had to agree with, both myself and Kylie had learned very early on that the cards were more than just ink on paper they were an extension of our very souls… and much more to those with enough of an open heart.

"Yugi, I don't believe in you 'cards have heart' theory! Cards aren't meant for heart only power," The thief spat back. I raised an eyebrow at the last word and turned my gaze up to Kylie who looked down at me with an inquisitive yet knowing look in her eyes.

"Now who does that remind you of?" Kylie queried. It was then that I knew what she was getting at as the very first person to pop into my head was Seto Kaiba.

"Off the top of my head, Seto," I responded. Kylie nodded, we both turned back to the duel and I noticed that Other Yugi had his eyes closed before opening them, perhaps he had seen through the boy's disguise to who he truly was.

"I knew it. Aren't you Kaiba Seto's little brother, Mokuba?" Other Yugi revealed. Mokuba was shocked by this but he decided it would be best to drop the disguise and removed the bandana and hat allowing his long shaggy black hair to fall out as his sad grey eyes locked onto Other Yugi once again.

"Shut up! My brother has been in so much pain since the duel with you ended. Because of you, Kaiba Corporation will be taken over by Pegasus!" Mokuba revealed. I could feel the shock race through me as I looked at Kylie who was equally surprised by this turn of events and even the others wore expression of shock as well.

Mokuba then went on to explain that ever since Seto's loss against Yugi, no one wanted to be involved with Kaiba Corporation thus the company was going downhill so the Pegasus brokered a deal with Kaiba Corporation's board of executives that if he or someone affiliated with him defeated Yugi in a duel then they would hold a meeting to dismiss Seto from the company, but the key to that dismissal lay with Mokuba himself making the boy effectively a prisoner of Pegasus.

I couldn't describe the anger that flowed through me after hearing this and I'm pretty sure I would have done something completely stupid if it weren't for Kylie's calming aura enveloping me as she placed a hand on my shoulder with a gentle squeeze to remind me exactly where I was and what was going on at the moment.

"Yugi, it's all your fault!" Mokuba yelled at Yugi. I couldn't imagine what poor Mokuba must have been feeling, to have been torn away from his brother it must have been horrible and I didn't even want to think about such a thing occurring to myself.

"I get the situation. But you still shouldn't have stolen that other guy's cards," Other Yugi attempted to pacify. However Mokuba refused to listen to him and he continued the duel by summoning out another monster in an attempt to defeat Other Yugi.

 **Krokodilus – Attriubte: Water, Type: Reptile, Level: 4, ATK/1100, DEF/1200**

Krokodilus was still too weak to defeat Winged Dragon and as such the monster was destroyed when Mokuba ordered it to attack Yugi's monster resulting in Mokuba losing more Life Points.

 **Mokuba – LP: 1400 – LP: 1100**

"It's useless to continue this fight. You're playing with stolen cards, you can't win," Other Yugi declared. Other Yugi was right, Mokuba wouldn't be able to defeat the stranger simply by using cards that didn't rest within his soul, those cards would never be able to connect with him on the same level that they did with their true master.

Jounouchi claimed that stealing the star chips was shameful however Mokuba told them they didn't understand as he had to take his brother's place to save the company since technically that would prevent Pegasus from being capable of taking over Kaiba Corporation since Mokuba didn't represent him, Kylie explained this to the others although Jounouchi and Honda were initially confused meaning she had to elaborate slightly.

However whilst we were all distracted by this conversation, Mokuba had left his podium and he reappeared on Other Yugi's side stealing some of his star chips and he attempted to escape in an effort to get Yugi disqualified however before he got too far Kylie had caught up to him and seized a hold of his arms.

"Mokuba look at me," Kylie prompted. Mokuba shook his head, his eyes closed as we both knew that if he did then Kylie would be able to talk him out of whatever he was thinking. "Look at me," Kylie repeated her voice a lot firmer than before. Mokuba couldn't resist and looked at her sadly through his black hair as she gently held the boy in one place to keep him from running off.

"Doing stuff like this, you'll never save Kaiba Corporation. Now I don't know what happened during Seto's duel against Yugi but you know how Seto always use to not believe me when I talked about Duel Monsters?" Kylie started. Mokuba nodded his head remembering that the two would often get into heated arguments about it. "Maybe he finally listened during that duel and this revelation shook him, now he needs to come to terms with this," Kylie explained.

"Kylie is right Mokuba. Kaiba is suffering, but what he needs to do is search for the heart in his cards. He has to search for his true pride himself, when he finally finds his cards' heart, he will definitely be alright," Other Yugi spoke up as he walked closer to them. With a single promise to Mokuba that he would defeat Pegasus Mokuba agreed to return the star chips and deck to the boy he stole them from.

With that done we all took off down towards the docks with Mokuba having a much lighter, happier and reassured expression on his face as his hand tightly gripped all of the star chips he hand in his possession with some of Yugi's still being amongst them as well.

"Kylie, I take it from the way you spoke, you and Kaiba know each other," Other Yugi queried as we ran. Kylie nodded her head and the others looked quite surprised at this but they didn't decide to probe any further as they left the conversation to those two

"Yeah we're kind of acquaintances and kind of friends but he's so closed off it's hard to know what he's thinking sometimes," Kylie sighed. She right on that, I'm pretty sure only Mokuba ever got to see the real Seto Kaiba underneath all the walls he built to protect himself from being hurt by outsiders. "By the way what's the cards have heart theory?" Kylie asked.

"It is the belief and faith a Duelist has in their Deck, putting hope that every card in their Deck gives will be useful," Other Yugi explained. Now that I heard it in context it sounded like the belief that me and Kylie had already shared since we started dueling but Kylie remained quite as we continued running.

However by the time we got close to the pier I saw over the cliff that we were currently on, that the boat the boy was in had already set sail despite the fact that the promised half an hour hadn't passed so we continued running down and found the thug with the antennae hair still standing there but he claimed we were too later.

"No way! We still have one minute!" Anzu complained. However the thug didn't even care and when Mokuba stepped forward, the thug went as far as to knock all of the star chips into the water and then he proceeded to seize a hold of Mokuba claiming he was going to be taken back to the castle.

"Wait. I have just three star chips left. To duel with you, I'll bet on all of them!" Other Yugi declared. The thug couldn't accepted since he didn't duel but would arrange for a 'special' opponent for Other Yugi to face and told us to meet him back in the meadow in one hour, then he walked off with Mokuba still squirming in his grip.

"Thank you Yugi," Kylie spoke. Other Yugi simply nodded and so once the hour were up we all returned to the meadow where Other Yugi would be dueling with the thug still having a hold of Mokuba so Other Yugi ordered him to let the young boy go but the thug would only consider it if the stranger actually won the duel so Other Yugi enquired about his opponent.

"He's already here. Look!" The thug informed. As I looked I couldn't help the horrified gasp that escape my throat, on the podium stood a boy of my's age with short slightly layered brown hair but his face was gaunt and shrunken in, he wore a uniform similar to the one Yugi always wore.

"Yugi, I have to take revenge… I have to take revenge… I have to take revenge" The boy spoke as he raised his head revealing the hollow blue orbs and proving that this was an exact look-a-like of Seto.


	6. Chapter 6

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to .1 for the reviews**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 6: - Revival of the Dead

"Yugi you will now fight with Kaiba Seto! Against Kaiba Seto's spirit that is," The thug commented. My eyes widened upon hearing those words whilst Other Yugi and Mokuba demanded answers from the thug. "I already told you. Kaiba Seto is not amongst the living anymore," The thug stated. I really wanted to punch this guy but I couldn't do that with Mokuba so close especially as this guy seemed like the type who would use a human shield.

"Shut the hell up. That is not Seto no matter what you say," I hissed. I swear everyone even that ghost visibly flinched at the anger that dripped from my tone except for Katherine who gently pulled on my arm to make sure that I didn't do anything stupid this time around with Mokuba also protesting this fact as well.

"It's not a lie. He died because of his hate for Muto Yugi," The thug responded. I didn't believe him as I would only believe such a statement if they brought Seto's corpse before me and even then I'd be hard pressed to believe that this so called ghost was actually Seto no matter how much they looked like each other.

"Now, that one standing up there is only Kaiba's spirit," The thug commented. I swear if someone didn't distract me with something soon, I might just decide to take this thug down even if Mokuba might be put in danger simply to shut him up from spouting his lies. "So, what are you going to do Yugi? Fight or not fight?" The thug questioned.

"Very well. I will reveal that person's true self!" Other Yugi's voice cut through my thoughts. I looked at him with a thankful gaze and he returned it with a determined one before turning and headed up to the blue podium in order to start this duel although I wondered if the mysterious individual would actually be capable of proving that this fake was truly a fake.

"Yugi… I am dead… when I lost to you I lost interest in everything… even my life… absolutely unforgiveable… now I stand at the door to hell and I will drag you into that hell along with me," Ghost Kaiba stated with no remorse or anything in his tone. Fortunately Other Yugi wasn't going to be fooled by such a pathetic imitation especially when this guy had no possible way of imitating Seto's deck which Other Yugi was kind enough to point out when the ghost brought up that aspect by himself with everyone else backing him up as well.

"We'll see about that. We'll bet three stars," Ghost Kaiba commented. Other Yugi agreed to the wager despite the three stars being all that he had, however there was no doubt in my mind that Other Yugi would be triumphant over this pathetic excuse for a fake.

 **Ghost Kaiba – LP: 2000**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

"That comment about giving up on life proves he's not Seto. The real Seto would never allow himself to simply roll over like a pathetic fool, he's a fighter to the bitter end and nothing can break him," I spat. This caused Ghost Kaiba to laugh as he turned to face me with those hollow blue eyes that seriously creeped me out which was a rare occurrence.

"Ah Kylie and here I thought we were friends," Ghost Kaiba mocked. I began to shake slightly with the anger that was building up within me so before I did something I'd regret I dug my nails into my skin and instead chose to snap my head up to face Other Yugi.

"Please, shut him up before I do something in front of Mokuba and Katherine that I might regret," I requested. My teeth had been all but gritted together as I spoke, Other Yugi nodded to my request and the duel began with Ghost Kaiba bringing out the monster known as Cyclops.

 **Cyclops – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1200, DEF/1000**

Mokuba commented that there was a card just like this in his brother's deck and Other Yugi froze for a moment obviously implying that he had seen this type of move before in his previous duel against Seto.

"The Cyclops is a very common card so there's no need to panic he's probably just trying to throw us off," Katherine called out. Everyone looked down the minute her voice reached them and it seemed that Other Yugi agreed with her statement.

"I'll use this card to battle. Black Magician in attack mode," Other Yugi retaliated. The powerful and rare Spellcaster was projected onto the field allowing me to see it much more clearly than the last time it had been in play.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

Other Yugi had his magician attack with Black Magic causing the Cyclops to be blasted away piece by piece until there was nothing left of its' virtual form to be found on the duel arena.

 **Ghost Kaiba – LP: 2000 – LP: 700**

However despite the destruction of his monster and the severe depletion of his Life Points that damn ghost started to laugh of all things, I glanced at Katherine who shrugged as she was completely confused as to why he was laughing in the first place as well.

"As usual you are strong… strong… Yugi… I can easily read your mind… What you are thinking right now is: maybe that really is Kaiba's deck. Am I right? That's right, this is the exact same deck as Kaiba Seto! The dead Kaiba is linked to this deck," Ghost Kaiba mocked. I noticed that Other Yugi seemed to be somewhat disturbed by this whole scenario although I couldn't really blame him.

"Kaiba is not dead! I don't believe in such a thing!" Other Yugi shot back. Ghost Kaiba went on to reveal exactly how Yugi had defeated him in the first place, he had done the impossible and actually summoned Exodia the Forbidden One, the single most powerful and unstoppable monster in the entire game which granted an automatic victory to whoever succeed in that endeavour and apparently… he lost the five cards necessary to summon Exodia.

"How do you lose the only way to summon the single most powerful creature in Duel Monsters?" I asked the others. They all looked at each other wondering who would probably tell me and when I glanced at Other Yugi he had a strange look in his eyes almost like he had gone sheepish probably from my tone, Jounouchi cleared his throat and so I turned to face him.

"Haga threw them off the boat," Jounouchi admitted. Well that explained a lot and now I felt like tracking down the Bug Specialist just so I could beat him up for being so disrespectful but at the moment I had too many things to do and so I turned back to the duel as Other Yugi reminded Ghost Kaiba it was his move.

"So, here I go… now, the dead one came from hell to reclaim his revenge on you! Are you ready, Yugi?" Ghost Kaiba spoke. He then turned around the card he held to reveal, to my utter horror, a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and everyone else was in just as much shock as I was, especially when he summoned it out onto the field.

 **Blue-Eyes White Dragon – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

"B-blue-Eyes White Dragon?" Jounouchi asked in completely shock. Mokuba commented that it had to be his brother's deck and with those words I shook off my shock as I had to keep believing that Seto was still alive, just because I saw a Blue-Eyes doesn't mean it's Seto or his deck.

"N-not necessarily, there are four Blue-Eyes in the world and Seto's got three this could just be the fourth," I nervously said. However I noticed that none of the others looked reassured, even Mokuba, and then to make it worse Ghost Kaiba began to laugh.

"Oh that could be true. If it weren't for the fact that Yugi's grandfather owned the fourth Blue-Eyes and I tore it in half. But how could I possibly know that if I wasn't Kaiba Seto," Ghost Kaiba directed the first part at me and then turned the last part on Yugi that mocking tone of his never leaving his voice for one second.

'That just means it's Seto's deck nothing more, nothing less. Keep a level head Kylie.' I thought. Katherine's grip on my pant leg had tightened as she desperately clung to something to keep her from panicking and it actually helped keep me grounded as well, I looked back to the duel seeing that Ghost Kaiba had yet to attack Other Yugi and was instead mocking him again.

"It's a lie! Someone say that this is a lie!" Mokuba begged repeating the last line with a tearful morn. I truly hoped that Seto would find a way to get here soon or at the least some way to prove that he is truly alive before poor Mokuba lost any hope of seeing him again.

"Shall we go together to hell?" Ghost Kaiba asked. That did it for me, Mokuba was Seto's most treasured aspect of his entire like and I highly doubt no matter if he was living or dead that Seto would actually be so callous as to ever dismiss Mokuba's feelings like that to focus solely on revenge.

To end his turn Ghost Kaiba simply decided to set a face down in the Spell and Trap zone as he wanted to make sure that Other Yugi's monsters had 'nowhere to run', in order to be prepared Other Yugi decided to build a defence using Black Magician and Curse of Dragon by placing them in defence position.

 **Curse of Dragon: - Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1500**

However this simply played right into Ghost Kaiba's hand as he revealed his face down was actually the Continuous Trap, Defence Seal which forced all of Other Yugi's monsters to be in attack position leaving him completely vulnerable and allowing this fake to use Blue-Eyes to destroy Curse of Dragon and take a chunk out of Yugi's Life Points in the process.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1000**

I bit into my lip as I desperately tried to think of any other possible way for Other Yugi to defeat all three of Seto's Blue-Eyes and whilst I had several cards in my deck that could to the job I didn't know if Other Yugi had those cards in his deck, another problem I needed to tackle was if that thug, didn't keep his promise and attempted to escape with Mokuba once the duel was done.

'Damnit I wish there was some possible way to contact Seto but there isn't any mobile phone service all the way out here and even if there was that wouldn't mean that Seto would pick up.' I thought. Katherine gently tugged on my pant leg and so I knelt down to her position so that she could talk to me in confidence without the thug or that ghost overhearing us.

"Do you think Seto knows what's going on?" Katherine asked. It was a good question and since Pegasus also had to get rid of Seto in order to take over Kaiba Corporation it is highly likely that the two actually knew each move that the other was making in this little takeover game Pegasus had decided to play.

"If he doesn't he might find out very soon and when he does there's going to be hell to pay," I responded. Pegasus had done the three things you never do around Seto, take his brother, take his Blue-Eyes and take his company; I had seen his reaction to those on separate occasions but never all three at once which meant that Pegasus' life could very well be endangered due to his own actions.

'That's another thing I don't understand why is Pegasus interested in Seto's company.' The thought occurred to me. Pegasus was already rich and would only get richer as the popularity of Duel Monsters was steadily increasing with more people getting interested and beside Industrial Illusions and Kaiba Corporation already had a contract centred around the Solid Vision technology that was being used in the arenas in this very tournament and previous ones.

I didn't normally pray but at the moment if anyone up there was listening I sincerely hoped that Seto had found some way to help us out of this situation because apart from an impressive strategy or a miracle that might be the only way that Other Yugi was going to be able to defeat the Blue-Eyes.

"Yugi... Kaiba's spirit will be happy to see you losing!" The thug stated. I was really getting tired of everyone saying that the individual opposing Other Yugi was Seto and that Seto was dead so I guess I had finally reached my breaking point.

"That isn't Seto and Seto isn't dead now will the both of you shut up before you make me angry!" I yelled. The thug took a step back whilst Ghost Kaiba simply began to laugh once more so I shot him a glare as he sent a wicked smirk my way.

"You always have had a bit of a temper Kylie ever since we were children," Ghost Kaiba commented. My entire body turned rock still, few people knew me and Seto had known each other as children but Pegasus was one of them so I immediately threw it off as that man telling some intel to making this fake seem more genuine.

"Pegasus knew that and he could have told you, so can it you poser!" I yelled. Mokuba then decided now was the time to speak up again but directed his works towards Other Yugi this time around instead of the imposter wearing his brother's face.

"Yugi! Didn't you tell me? That my brother could come back! I… I believe… I believe in those words… I'll wait for my brother forever!," Mokuba declared tears yelling in his innocent eyes. His unshakeable faith in the return of his brother was something that we all have to draw strength from during this duel, or until Seto came to us.

"Yugi, I know Seto has faults, lots of them, but to be blatantly cruel and mocking like this isn't like Seto at all, he would also never dismiss Mokuba's feelings like this," Katherine called out as well. However it seemed like everyone else was still shaky about their beliefs of whether or not this fake was truly the real deal ever since he had brought out Blue-Eyes.

I looked at the majestic dragon and tried to see if anything about it looked different that it normally did and when I focused on its' intense and deep blue eyes, I had found my answer. Within those blue pools was a churning sorrow that made the creature seem more real than the holographic projection it was meant to be but I knew what this meant, Blue-Eyes was never sad when played by Seto and this fake was severely upsetting not only Mokuba but Blue-Eyes as well.

Yugi began to make his move and activated the Spell card Magical Silk Hats which proceeded to drop a hat over the Black Magician and then three more appeared although it gave the image of them moving as it multiplied making it so that now this fake would have to guess as to where Black Magician was located and odds speaking wise the chances of him succeeding weren't in his favour.

With four hats to choose from and only one of them being occupied it was likely that Seto would miss on his first try but the question was would anything else be hidden underneath the hats just like the Black Magician, it was highly likely and something that could prove to be dangerous if the right trap was set underneath.

"Now… attack! Using your Burst Stream of Destruction! But the chance of success is one in four. What is it? If you're really a vengeful spirit and really want to see me dead… attack!" Other Yugi taunted and questioned at the same time. It was a good strategy by taunting this fake he might not take the time to think clearly about which hat would be the best to attack although this fake seemed to be keeping his calm as he didn't even look bothered by Yugi's move.

"What foolish trickery… just to buy time…," Ghost Kaiba mocked. Despite the comment Other Yugi wasn't even fazed by the mocking tone and instead he held a smirk on his face as he kept his eyes locked on Ghost Kaiba as he simply ordered the fake to attack. "So I will destroy each one of them! Burst Stream!" Ghost Kaiba spoke up after a bit of thinking.

It did seem like destroying all the Magical Hats was the only possible way to find the Black Magician without it happening by sheer luck however I was rather worried about what would happen if this fake did actually luck out and manage to destroy the Black Magician.

The bright sphere of blue and white light grew bigger as it streaked across the arena towards the hat that had been chosen and I noticed that despite his earlier bravado, Other Yugi was noticeably worried and I didn't blame him everything hinged on Ghost Kaiba not destroying his Black Magician otherwise Other Yugi would be forced to give up on trying to save Mokuba from Pegasus' clutches.

'Please if anyone is listening in this world, Seto if you can hear me from wherever you are. Please don't let Other Yugi lose this duel he has to win so please someone make sure that this horrible fake of someone I know, doesn't destroy Yugi's last line of defence otherwise all will be lost.' I prayed.

It seemed almost ironic that as my prayer was finished the Burst Stream blast engulfed the hat it had been aimed for and thanks to this it ended up partially blinded all of us once the attack set of an explosion of light and sound that covered the entire field forcing us to cover our eyes in some way in order to protect them from being damaged by the light despite it being virtual.


	7. Chapter 7

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 7: - Blue-Eyes White Dragon Strikes Back

When the light faded I blinked my eyes slightly to clear my blurred vision and then I raised my head to look at Other Yugi's field, one of the Hats had been destroyed but none of Other Yugi's Life Points had been lost implying that Ghost Kaiba had missed the Black Magician, I heard Kylie breathed a sigh of relief and the tenseness in her muscles soon faded away.

"I missed?" Ghost Kaiba asked. It was somewhat annoying that this imposter wasn't fazed by not destroying the Black Magician first time around whilst the other three began to cheer and Mokuba looked a lot brighter now that he knew the outcome of the imposter's attack however I couldn't settle the worry that was currently gnawing away at my insides.

"It's my turn, I play this card," Other Yugi called out as he slid a card face down into the Spell and Trap zone. I noticed that it didn't appear blinking on the field like normally implying that it was hidden under one of the three remaining Hats so I guessed it was a type of Trap card. "I still have three Magical Hats, if you can defeat the Black Magician my Life Points will decrease. However, under one of the magical hats I've put a trap card. Now… it's your turn," Other Yugi declared.

With this declaration I noticed another difference between Yugi and Other Yugi, is was their level of confidence as Yugi was more like an optimistic individual whilst Other Yugi was almost arrogant in a way, it kind of reminded me of Seto which was a scary thought in of itself. Ghost Kaiba declared his attack and destroyed another Hat, once the explosion faded this time, we saw a sparking energy coming from the demolished Hat but Other Yugi's Life Points still hadn't dropped.

"Wrong guess. Activate trap card, Curse of Hexagram," Other Yugi revealed. The Trap flew over and it ensnared Blue-Eyes forcing the attack power of the beautiful dragon to drop to a more manageable level whilst also preventing it from switching battle positions.

 **Blue-Eyes White Dragon – ATK/3000 – ATK/2300**

"Blue-Eyes is really almost invincible… but there's a method to reduce her attack. Now go, Black Magician!" Other Yugi announced. With his words, said Spellcaster arose from his hiding spot, which had been right in between the two destroy hats and he proceeded to destroy the captive Blue-Eyes, thus erasing that danger for the time being. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon is defeated!" Other Yugi declared.

 **Ghost Kaiba – LP: 700 – LP: 500**

Everyone was ecstatic about Other Yugi's successful defeat of the Blue-Eyes which was very impressive with how patient and calm he had to remain in order to pull that trap off to perfection, even Kylie seemed impressed with this fact, if her grin and dancing eyes were anything to go by.

However our excitement didn't last long as the moment Ghost Kaiba's turn came around the Black Magician was swiftly destroyed by another Blue-Eyes surprising all of us as we hadn't been expecting another one to come out so quickly after the first one which put Other Yugi back in the same sticky situation as last time only with less Life Points.

 **Yugi – LP: 1000 – LP: 500**

"Things got better then they got worse. Now he needs another trick," Kylie commented. I hummed my agreement with what she said as Ghost Kaiba began laughing at this fact before proceeding to begin mocking Other Yugi by reminding him of the presence of three Blue-Eyes in his deck

"Yugi… that's not the reality! My brother is definitely alive! Definitely!" Mokuba called out. Other Yugi heard his words and believed in them as he turned back to the duel obviously contemplating the type of move he should make considering his current predicament.

Other Yugi eventually made a move and he proceeded to summon out another monster which was his Gremlin but he played no face down cards, despite the fact that the Gremlin wasn't powerful enough on its' own but he didn't have much of a choice in the end due to Defence Seal preventing him from defending.

 **Gremlin – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400**

Ghost Kaiba ordered the beautiful dragon to attack, with Yugi's friends arguing about what they could do which was nothing really, however the dragon didn't make a move instead its' image flickered for a moment and then beams of light shot out of its' body with the attack points of the Blue-Eyes starting to fall for some strange reason, to add to this effect the Blue-Eyes' form began to take on the appearance of melting.

"It's a virus," Kylie whispered. I looked at my sister knowing that she had correctly identified the cause after all she was a tech enthusiast aside from Duel Monsters and had learned by visiting our father's work space quite often with him teaching her all of the computer tricks and skills she had in her arsenal.

If a virus had indeed been uploaded into the Blue-Eyes, apart from Kylie I could only think of a handful of people who had the skill to pull something like this off and I knew that it wasn't Kylie simply because she didn't have any of the necessary equipment with her to do anything like this.

The Blue-Eyes continued to melt and flicker as everyone watched in shock and awe at the devastation that the virus was causing with the thug contacting his boss to inform him of what was going on whilst Ghost Kaiba seemed to be getting quite frustrated with the fact that the Blue-Eyes was losing power and the monster couldn't attack due to this.

Sadly the decrease in power didn't last for long as it eventually stopped when Blue-Eyes still possessed two thousand attack points and thus it began to prepare its' attack however something strange happened before the energy was unleashed, it was like a rippling sensation, a rush of energy cascading over the entire meadow and then a voice shot through the silence like a bell ringing at dawn.

" _Yugi!_ " I heard Seto's voice cry. From the expressions on Kylie's and Other Yugi's faces the both of them had heard the call as well and it appeared that we weren't the only ones as the Blue-Eyes then stopped her attack and seemingly self-destructed leaving everyone shocked and Ghost Kaiba reeling in surprise at this turn of events.

I thought back on what Other Yugi had said about the Heart of the Cards as I had decided to call that little theory we all seemed to share and I realised one very crucial thing, the Blue-Eyes had known all along that the person wielding her card was not her rightful master Seto Kaiba and upon hearing the cry of the real Seto and knowing what her master wanted, Blue-Eyes destroyed itself in order to fulfil this desire.

"Why?! Why me?!" Ghost Kaiba cried. His voice sounded strained and took on a very different tone, I had the sinking suspicion that we were about to see exactly what this imposter real was.

"Kaiba… is alive… he is…" Other Yugi revealed. His gaze was accusatory as it pierced into the fake Kaiba silently demanding that he reveal his true form to us or at the very least for him stop pretending to be Seto.

"Shut up! I am dead!" The imitator cried obviously unwilling to give up his act. I was highly doubtful that any of us would be believing him any time soon especially after the display that we had just witnessed.

"No! Kaiba Seto is alive!" Other Yugi yelled back at him. Mokuba cheered at this fact since he was grateful to know that his cherished older brother was alive although it seemed that the other three were completely confused about what had just happened.

"It's obvious, isn't? There's no one other than my brother that could destroy the Blue-Eyes like that! That's my brother's doing! I knew it! My brother's alive!" Mokuba explained to them. I smiled at the young boy as the love and bright cheer that was so common to him had finally began to return to his eyes.

"It's proven that Kaiba is alive… now I can concentrate on the duel. Imposter! It's high time for you to reveal your identity! I won't let you fool me anymore" Other Yugi commanded. It felt like this man was out of time, he seemed to walk and speak with a certain strength that almost made it feel like he was meant to be some kind of general or maybe even a king.

"Cut the charade coward! We aren't going to believe the lie anymore! So cough it up! Just who the hell are you?!" Kylie snarled. Clearly the deception of impersonating our sort of friend had affected my sister more than she normally let on but I could hardly blame her, I wanted answers from this faker as well.

"Damn! I told you that I'm dead, didn't I?!" Ghost Kaiba proclaimed. Then his clothing ripped and his muscles contorted to reveal a very ugly and large clown looking individual who laughed at Other Yugi's expression. "This form is more comfortable. I am the Puppeteer of the Dead, sent by Industrial Illusions. Now, Yugi, come on. Let's have some fun playing," This thing said.

Everyone had the exact same reaction to this thing, complete and utter disgust with Jounouchi encouraging Other Yugi to no longer hold back since we now know the truth of the entire situation so the mysterious duelists simply had to eliminate his opponent so that we could get Mokuba to safety.

"I know not to judge a book by its' cover but ugh, he is… this just… wrong on too many levels," Kylie spoke her own opinion. Throughout all of this Other Yugi has remained quiet as if he seemed to be contemplating something important but none of us knew exactly what he was thinking about meanwhile Mokuba was yelling insults at Ghost Kaiba which he was completely entitled to, in my opinion.

"I guess I just don't know what to call you. I was thinking about monster but I didn't want to insult the cards," Other Yugi commented. Kylie burst out laughing at this and I unleashed a small series of giggles as well, Kylie soon composed herself but her face still help quite the smile on it. "Now… you have no monsters in play. Hurry up and draw!" Yugi informed.

"Grappler in defence mode," Ghost Kaiba declared. He unleashed a hideous laugh as he summoned out the monster with the laugh causing a slight shiver of disgust to creep through my body.

 **Grappler – Attribute: Water, Type: Reptile, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400**

It was quite clear that this imposter was simply attempting to bide time until he could draw the third Blue-Eyes and unleash it onto the field which might present some type of a problem especially if Defence Seal was still on the field by the time that came around.

"My turn. I play a card face-down on the field and summon Elf Swordsman in attack mode," Other Yugi responded. The elven warrior was projected into the arena clearly prepared to do away with the monster that was opposing his master.

 **Elf Swordsman – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

Since Elf Swordsman was more powerful, Other Yugi was able to use him in order to destroy Grappler however Ghost Kaiba wasn't even fazed by such an act and instead he proceeded to summon out the Centaur in defence mode once again and also set one card face down.

 **Centaur – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1550**

I couldn't be sure exactly what this fake was up to as the face down could some a Trap of some kind or it could be a Spell but either type of card would mean serious trouble if Other Yugi wasn't capable of combating them or if they managed to bring out the Blue-Eyes before this imposter physically drew it from the stolen deck.

"I, too, play a face down and Holy Elf in attack mode plus I do a combo with the Book of Secret Arts increasing its' attack and defence power by three hundred points," Other Yugi spoke as he made his move. The blue-skinned she-elf appeared on the field and I noticed that she was changing in a language but I couldn't hear what the chant was and I probably wouldn't be able to understand anyway.

 **Holy Elf – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 4, ATK/800, DEF/2000**

 **Holy Elf – ATK/800 – ATK/1100, DEF/2000 – DEF/2300**

"Turn over," Other Yugi declared. I hoped that whatever strategy he had in mind would be able to combat the danger of the last Blue-Eyes that could come out at any moment in this duel.

"I don't know what that is but it's useless. Stop these foolish things," Ghost Kaiba taunted turning his head into Pegasus' on the last four words before turning back. He paused for a moment as he examined Other Yugi's field obviously try to decipher exactly what his opponent was up to but he eventually allowed a twisted and disturbing smile split across his face which made me take a step behind Kylie who sneered at the expression that had appeared.

"All these face down cards… who's trump with triumph? The battle will be decided now!" Jounouchi admitted. Anzu and Mokuba also threw their encouragement for Other Yugi's victory as we waited for Ghost Kaiba to make his move which he finally did by drawing a card and holding it up so that he could look at it.

"I did it! Blue-Eyes White Dragon," Ghost Kaiba declared. The final dragon had come and now it was all up to Other Yugi to find some way out of this mess otherwise Pegasus would claim control of Kaiba Corporation and take Mokuba prisoner once again, Mokuba then called out reassuring us that Seto would help Other Yugi just like the last time.

"Fool! Do you think that will happen **twice**? Look at the Blue-Eyes! If Kaiba were to be doing something to this one like the previous one, it would be just like the other one. But the third Blue-Eyes didn't change at all," The thug cut across.

At least the thug's little statement had confirmed that Seto was indeed alive and after Honda nearly stated this fact, although the thug claimed that Seto wasn't going to be helping us this time which caused Mokuba to become extremely upset however Kylie then turned to face him a hard look in her eyes.

"Here's a grain of advice, shut up. We aren't interested in your opinion and Yugi still has a chance of winning this duel so just remember our deal for when he does succeed," Kylie calm informed the thug. Kylie then turned back to the duel as the other three blinked slightly as they were surprised by the calm way my sister had handled this due to her previously violently reaction.

Meanwhile Mokuba now held a smile on his face at my sister's words and the two duelists currently fighting along with myself were too focused on the duel to be distracted for too long by what had just transpired around us.

Ghost Kaiba had Blue-Eyes launch its' Burst Stream attack at Other Yugi's field however Other Yugi declared it wasn't over yet and then proceeded to reveal that one of his face down cards was the Trap card Mirror Force and due to its' effect the Burst Stream attack was sent bouncing back to its' source with the imposter freaking out.

"Just joking! Trap card activate, Attack Nullification!" Ghost Kaiba revealed. This trap, as per its' name, negated the reflected attack leaving Blue-Eyes still standing but thanks to this move Other Yugi had been bought one turn in order to do something about Defence Seal or Blue-Eyes herself as the faker began to insult Other Yugi.

"I still have a trump. The Resurrection of the Dead card," Other Yugi declared as he held up the Spell card. Knowing its' effect Ghost Kaiba freaked out whilst me and Kylie cheered since this move allowed Other Yugi to resurrect one of the Blue-Eyes that had fallen earlier in the duel.

"I may have thought that got me but they have the same attack power," Ghost Kaiba mocked. However Other Yugi revealed that he was going to take a page out of Seto's book and alter the power of the Blue-Eyes he had resurrected thanks to the Holy Elf as her chanting had actually be a spell which resulted in her own power being added to the dragon's strength.

 **Blue-Eyes White Dragon – ATK/3000 – ATK/4100**

With this new increase it attack power, Other Yugi's Blue-Eyes was able to annihilate Ghost Kaiba's and effectively won him the duel causing all of us to break out into a cheer at Other Yugi's victory with a burst of light encompassing the field.

 **Ghost Kaiba – LP: 500 – LP: 0**

I sensed a wave of power originating from Other Yugi's side of the arena within the light and once it faded, Ghost Kaiba had disappeared so I glanced up at Kylie who nodding making it known that she had sensed the power surge as well but she didn't let this delay her as she raced over to Ghost Kaiba's podium and picked up Seto's deck

"I think I'll hold on to this until Seto comes to pick it up," Kylie commented. She then proceeded to use a spare deck holder to contain it and hung it on the belt that was wrapped around her waist then she jumped down but once she looked up her face paled and she pointed to a spot in front of her causing us to look and we all realised the same thing.

"That creep took Mokuba-kun!" Anzu exclaimed. A loud banging sound rang out and I saw that Kylie's fist had impacted against the duel arena and her eyes held a very dark and scary look in them which caused me to step back to the others.

"Don't just stand there! Look! They might still be close by!" Kylie yelled. Once the words were out of her mouth, my sister immediately took off and this caused me to run after her with the others soon trailing right after the two of us.

'Mokuba, we'll find you I promise.' I thought as we began our search.


	8. Chapter 8

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy, I had to use the dubbed version as the original couldn't be found**

Chapter 8: - The Dueling Monkey

All of us scoured the nearby area calling out to Mokuba in the desperate attempt to find him or some sign of where he might have been dragged off to but no such luck and the sun was beginning to set which turned the blue sky into an orangey shade and so with this in mind I ran back to meet up with the others who also hadn't found Mokuba.

"Those thugs must have snatched him back to Pegasus' castle," Honda theorised. It was defiantly a sound theory as with Mokuba in the castle it would allow for Pegasus to keep an eye on him in case he made any more escape attempts and once Seto did come it would force him to go directly for the castle which worked well for Pegasus' plans.

"It's just another reason for us to win those ten star chips and get in there," Yugi stated. I looked at my duel glove specifically the two empty star chip slots and gritted my teeth together as I raised my green eyes to look straight at Pegasus' castle with anger.

"Yugi, you've got our help. Mokuba's like family and I'm not letting Pegasus keep his hands on him," I spoke. Yugi looked up at me and smiled gently then looked at Katherine who nodded her head in agreement with my statement although at that moment Jounouchi noticed some Duel Monsters cards on the floor and went to pick them up.

"Hands off those are mine," Honda informed. This surprised Yugi and Honda commented that if Jounouchi could play the game then he would probably be an expert at it, obviously referencing Jounouchi's lack of forethought but in my opinion that style of play worked for him, some duelists did better with brains others with instincts and some worked well with both aspects.

"I recognise that monster," Jounouchi admitted as he picked up a card. Yugi mentioned he saw it in the blonde's deck at some point so Jounouchi shuffled through until he found it but the monster was slightly different. "Here it is, Barbarian Two. Well would you take a look at this, these two look they could be long lost brothers of course that doesn't mean your boy packs the same kind of punch mine does," Jounouchi commented a grin on his face

Honda got mad for a second but then offered his Barbarian One to Jounouchi in order for him to try it out and Jounouchi agreed since the two cards worked best together although Anzu then commented that she saw a similarity between the two boys and the monsters with her calling the monsters' muscle heads.

"You know that's kind of rude," I commented. Anzu blinked in surprise for a second but I didn't let her say anything else as I ushered everyone to get moving since with some light left there might still be a couple of duelists milling around which would mean at least one of us would get some more star chips before night fall.

We arrived in a field where some duelists were indeed simply wondering around with a few duel arenas scattered about for them to duel on so the others started prompting Jounouchi to duel one of them however this ended up descending into rather insulting aspects with Anzu mentioning a dueling monkey which caused Honda to laugh.

"Who wants some! Just one more word about dueling mon-," Jounouchi began to yell. This caused Katherine to squeak and hide behind me but before I could say anything or Jounouchi could finish his little rant, a very familiar obnoxious laugh echoed over to where we were currently standing.

"Ah please tell me that's not who I think it is?" Jounouchi begged a displeased look marring his face. However the rest of us all looked behind him to where the source of the laugh had come from allowing us to see that it was indeed Mai standing there so I nodded to the blonde boy confirming his fears and so he turned around to face the blonde woman.

"How are you Jounouchi? Glad to see me?" Mai questioned. As Jounouchi wasn't, this showed in his face and when he responded to Mai's questions with an monotone voice. "So Jounouchi is Yugi still fighting all your battles for you? Everyone knows if Yugi wasn't there to hold your hand you wouldn't have beat me. Isn't that right Yugi?" Mai spoke. I smelled a rat and it wasn't the horrible perfume that still clung to Mai's cards.

"That's not true," Yugi protested. However Mai wasn't having any of that and so she proposed that Jounouchi duel against someone that she had arranged for him which turned out to be Dinosaur Ryuzaki and the blonde boy agreed to this wager although Honda and Anzu weren't impressed by his choice.

"Oh and by the way, if Yugi or either of the Hope sisters do any backseat dueling for Jounouchi then he is disqualified and the match automatically goes to Ryuzaki," Mai added on. Ah there was that rat, I didn't believe that Jounouchi had only won thanks to Yugi but I couldn't be entirely sure that Yugi or rather Other Yugi hadn't been completely out of the equation to the less experienced duelist's earlier victory over Mai; Mai then egged the blonde boy on in order to get him to agree to these terms with Anzu voicing her opinion about this whole deal but Jounouchi stopped her by holding out his arm.

"No that's the way I want it, just me and him. It may cost me all my star chips but I don't deserve to keep them if the only reason I'm winning is cause of Yugi's smarts. All my life people are trying to help me cause they think I can't help myself well I don't need to be babied this time," Jounouchi spoke up. I could respect his desire to prove himself but I didn't want him to risk something if he didn't absolutely need to do so.

"You've lost it Jounouchi, you can believe whatever you want but I won't just stand here and watch you throw your chips away. I hope you guys don't mind but Jounouchi won't be coming out to duel today maybe once he grows up we can arrange a playdate," Honda interjected. I saw the blonde's shoulders begin to shake partway through Honda's speech and so I took a step back dragging Katherine along and it was lucky as, shortly after he finished, Honda was punched by Jounouchi sending him down to the ground.

"Didn't you hear what I just said wise guy. I'm tired of everyone thinking they've got to come to my rescue," Jounouchi repeated. Yugi attempted to console his friend however the knucklehead just told Yugi to stay out of it, Honda then took off to somewhere else after commenting that Jounouchi could lose the chance to help his sister which surprised me and Katherine as we now knew the blonde boy's reason for this duel.

Jounouchi confirmed that he would indeed stay to duel against Ryuzaki and then the duel arena rose up out of the ground so the two duelists head to their podiums but before Jounouchi got on I lay my hand on his shoulder and his flew up to smack it off but as it was the hand I had punched the earlier duel arena with a shock of pain burst through it causing me to flinch but this caused Jounouchi to pause as he looked at me

"Jounouchi I just wanted to say that you don't have to prove yourself unless you want to. But if you do, I'm not going to stop you, I just wanted you to know," I spoke. Jounouchi nodded and he then walked over to the blue podium whilst I returned to stand by the rest.

"Are you ok?" Yugi asked seeing me cradling my injured hand. Along the outer edge of the injured hand, my skin was beginning to darken showing that a bruise was going to form in that area but I waved my hand at Yugi to get him to settle down.

"I'm ok, just punched that duel arena a little too hard," I joked. However this didn't get Yugi to settle down and he only looked more worried with Katherine's expression morphing to match Yugi's but all of us turned to watch the duel since that was a more pressing matter, we also heard Mai mention that if Ryuzaki won against Jounouchi he could duel her.

"I can believe you're reduced yourself to being Mai's attack dog," Jounouchi muttered upon hearing this comment. It didn't surprise me since Mai probably manipulated him in some way the same way she tried to manipulate Jounouchi the last time we had all met up with her.

"At least I'm no dueling monkey," Ryuzaki shot back. Since the earlier comment was still fresh in his mind Jounouchi got so angry that it looked like he was engulfed in flames confusing Ryuzaki for a moment although they eventually agreed to bet two star chips.

The field they were playing on was one part desert and one part meadow which sadly played to the advantage of both duelists due to the primary monster type of their decks and Jounouchi's lack of experience with the Field Power Bonus.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000**

 **Ryuzaki – LP: 2000**

"Hey Katherine-chan, Kylie-san, Anzu, keep rooting Jounouchi-kun on, I've got to go see about something," Yugi requested. Before hearing any response from the three of us, the young boy turned and began to take off probably to find Honda and hopefully talk some sense into him.

I turned back to watch the duel and saw that Jounouchi had a grin on his face implying that he had drawn a good hand, this would have to be worked out of him as the best duelists were able to keep their faces calm and composed when examining their cards only rarely letting their emotions rise during a duel, Jounouchi then brought out Baby Dragon in defence mode.

 **Baby Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 3, ATK/1200, DEF/900**

I restrained a sigh at Jounouchi's move if only because Baby Dragon would be destroyed by any of Ryuzaki's monsters that were powerful enough, I figured he was going for the same combo that defeated Mai but he really should have played a stronger monster to start off with and then brought out Baby Dragon.

"You never leave a baby unattended and you're about to find out why! Two-Headed King Rex, attack!" Ryuzaki commanded. He brought out the towing purple lizard and upon his orders the projection charged forward to attack Baby Dragon.

 **Two-Headed King Rex – Attribute: Earth, Type: Dinosaur, Level: 4, ATK/1600, DEF/1200**

As I had predicted, Baby Dragon was destroyed by the more powerful monster, fortunately since it had been placed in defence mode Jounouchi's Life Points were left untouched, Anzu supported and encouraged the blonde by attempted to make sure he kept calm however Mai then laughed.

"You don't get it do you? Jounouchi's already made the one fatal mistake that will cost him this entire duel and that was ever agreeing to it in the first place," Mai mocked. However Jounouchi wasn't going to give up on this duel so soon and so he then summoned out Leogun.

 **Leogun – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level: 5, ATK/1750, DEF/1550**

Jounouchi had his new monster attack however since Two-Headed King Rex was a dinosaur it had gained a Field Power Bonus and so Jounouchi's attack was wasted and his monster destroyed which resulted in the blonde losing some of his Life Points.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1670**

 **Two-Headed King Rex – ATK/1600 – ATK/2080, DEF/1200 – DEF/1580**

"Let's go, you're just the appetizer. I want to get onto the main course," Ryuzaki pushed. Jounouchi wasn't going to make it easy for Ryuazki to beat him in this duel and he then summoned out Axe Raider in order to combat the dinosaur standing across from him.

 **Axe Raider – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1700, DEF/1150**

 **Axe Raider – ATK/1700 – ATK/2210, DEF/1150 – DEF/1495**

Thanks to the Field Power bonus that Axe Raider had received, Jounouchi was able to destroy Two-Headed King Rex and finally deal some damage to Ryuzaki's Life Points, now all he had to do was keep this up for the rest of the duel and I'm sure he'd emerge victorious.

 **Ryuzaki – LP: 2000 – LP: 1870**

"Don't let it go to your head," Ryuzaki warned. He then proceeded to summon out Sword Dragon and due to its' higher base stats, when it received the Field Power Bonus the new dinosaur was able to destroy Axe Raider with relative ease.

 **Sword Dragon – Attribute: Earth, Type: Dinosaur, Level: 6, ATK/1750, DEF/2030**

 **Sword Dragon – ATK/1750 – ATK/2275, DEF/2030 – DEF/2630**

 **Jounouchi – LP:1670 – LP: 1605**

This latest destruction sent Jounouchi into a slight depressed panic although Anzu continued trying to help by doing that annoying cheerleading of hers yet Jounouchi looked slightly upset when he looked down at us considering that Yugi and Honda hadn't come back yet.

"Can't you two say something," Anzu spoke to us. I wanted to punch the girl for being so dense, had she honestly forgotten that me and Katherine couldn't say anything for fear of Jounouchi getting disqualified.

"And get Jounouchi disqualified? Not likely," I shot back. This caused Anzu to shut up and all of us turned back to watch the duel with Jounouchi having gotten his act together and he resumed the duel by playing his Time Magician in the Spell and Trap zone although since Yugi wasn't here to help, Mai and Ryuzaki didn't consider it a threat then Jounouchi brought out a monster in face down defence mode.

However the defence didn't last long as Ryuzaki soon brought out another dinosaur known as Megazowler and had the new beast attack Jounouchi's only line of defence completely destroying it revealing it was Cavern Djinn – Ogre Rock although his Life Points where safe for now.

 **Megazowler – Attribute: Earth, Type: Dinosaur, Level: 6, ATK/1800, DEF/2000**

 **Megazowler – ATK/1800 – ATK/2340, DEF/2000 – DEF/2600**

"Reduced to rubble, I sure sent him back to the stones ages," Ryuzaki joked. At the end he let of an annoying laugh however none of us found his joke funny and Jounouchi simple retaliated this move by bringing out Flame Swordsman.

 **Flame Swordsman – Attribute: Fire, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

 **Flame Swordsman – ATK/1800 – ATK/2340, DEF/1600 – DEF/2080**

"Didn't you see what I did to your Ogre Rock? Do you really think that your puny little Flame Swordsman will last any longer? Looks like I'm going to have to teach you respect my dinosaurs the hard way," Ryuzaki mocked. He then ordered Magzowler to attack Jounouchi's Flame Swordsman however Mai called out an insult but it was too late as the two monsters clashed.

Despite having the same attack points only Megazowler was destroyed since Dinosaur-type monsters had a huge weakness when it came to fire type attacks which gave Jounouchi an edge in the duel now and Mai was extremely annoyed with the sudden turn of events whilst Ryuzaki and Jounouchi had been shocked at the destruction of the dinosaur.

 **Ryuzaki – LP: 1870 – LP: 1330**

"Looks like I've found the secret to beating your dinosaurs. Hope you're not too sore about it, get it sore, dino, dinosaur," Jounouchi joked. Like Ryuzaki's joke that one also fell flat on its' face although Ryuzaki was seriously annoyed as he switched his Sword Dragon into defence mode however using Flame Swordsman Jounouchi was able to easily defeat it and the next two dinosaurs after that one.

"This is far from over you know, one card won't win this for you," Ryuzaki snapped. That wasn't quite true as sometimes it was simply playing the right card at the right moment that could win any duel also Jounouchi simply ignored this sentence and brought out Barbarian Two.

 **Barbarian #2 – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1500**

 **Barbarian #2 – ATK/1800 – ATK/2340, DEF/1500 – DEF/1950**

"Big deal, I have a beast that will wipe that smirk of your face permanently. Alright, meet the top link of the food chain, Evil Knight Dragon," Ryuzaki declared. The dragon was projected onto the field and I bit my lip lightly at the appearance of the rare card, this would make it slightly harder for the blonde to win against Ryuzaki.

 **Evil Knight Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2350, DEF/2400**

Using the Evil Knight Dragon's Nightmare Sonic Blast, Ryuzaki was able to destroy Flame Swordsman thus removing, currently, the only advantage Jounouchi had over Ryuzaki's dinosaurs and taking a small portion out of his Life Points.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1605 – LP: 1595**

Jounouchi looked shaken by what had just happen although he still managed to draw a card from his deck but froze as he looked at, I saw that his eyes gained a slightly vacant look no doubt thing back on something important so I guess that card must have been Honda's Barbarian One, the sound of running echoed so all of us glanced back to see Honda and Yugi running up towards us.

"Well it's about time. Where have you two been?!" I nearly snapped. Honda took on an extremely sheepish look with Yugi looking no better however I sighed and turned back to the duel causing them to look as well. "At least you got here, your support will probably help Jounouchi so talk to him," I finished. The last part was directed at Honda so he took a step forward with Jounouchi still in a daze.

"Jounouchi!" Honda called out. This startled the blonde out of his reprieve and he glanced down towards our location seeing that Honda and Yugi had finally come back. "We're here for you buddy so how about it, you going to take that card of mine for a test drive or what," Honda prompted. Jounouchi agreed and he summoned out Barbarian One so that it could stand alongside its' counterpart.

 **Barbarian #1 – Attribute: - Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1550, DEF/1800**

 **Barbarian #1 – ATK/1550 – ATK/2015, DEF/1800 – DEF/2340**

"What a touching reunion. Too bad my Evil Knight Dragon is gone blast it to shreds," Ryuzaki declared. He had Evil Knight Dragon attack Barbarian Two however when the attack nearly hit, it was suddenly rebounded instead due to Barbarian One protecting its' counterpart and since the attack was rebounded Evil Knight Dragon was destroyed.

"When both Barbarian One and Two are on the same side of the dueling field they receive a five hundred attack point bonus which made them stronger than Ryuzaki's Evil Knight Dragon," I swiftly explained. This caused a cheer to erupt from the two non-duelists.

 **Barbarian Two – ATK/2340 – ATK/2840**

 **Barbarian One – ATK/2015 – ATK/2515**

 **Ryuzaki – LP: 1330 – LP: 840**

Despite this success Jounouchi couldn't relax yet, the duel was still ongoing and whilst he currently had the advantage who knows what combos Ryuzaki might pull out of his deck in fact my suspicions were only confirmed when I caught Ryuzaki holding a sinister smirk on his face.


	9. Chapter 9

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 9: - Trial By Red-Eyes

Ryuzaki resumed the duel by placing a monster face down in defence position in order to protect his Life Points from any more damage, I knew that Ryuzaki would have some more tricks up his sleeves so Jounouchi had to be careful about any potential attacks.

"Go Barbarian One," Joey declared. The mentioned warrior easily destroyed Ryuzaki's defensive monster but I was concerned about what the dinosaur duelist might be stalling for time as he could be waiting for a monster that could turn this whole duel around.

"Go Jounouchi! Show this dinosaur bastard the power of our friendship!" Honda encouraged. Yugi vocalised his agreement with this statement claiming that the two Barbarians would be tough to beat and Kylie nodded her head in order to symbolise her agreement, although right after she did Ryuzaki unleashed a nasally laugh at this causing all of us to look at him.

"Power of friendship, was it? What bullshit!" Ryuzaki spat. He looked at his cards and a dark smile split across his face. "My ultimate card is still in my deck. Alright here it is! My ultimate card! Show yourself, Red-Eyes Black Dragon," Rex declared as he played the card. The other was surprised by the dragon's appearance into the game but me and Kylie were simply worried.

I watched as the glorious black scaled dragon was projected onto the field, this monster was said to rival the powers of Seto's Blue-Eyes White Dragon and it was meant to be just as rare a card to find as well, I was really worried that Jounouchi might not be able to stand against this beast.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

"It's very rare for someone to see this card. So, even if you lose, you should still feel honoured," Ryuzaki taunted. Jounouchi looked worried about this fact and Yugi commented that the dragon standing before us was exactly like the Blue-Eyes, a legendary card.

"Ryuzaki had a card like this?" Mai muttered in surprise. Ryuzaki then went on to use a Spell card known as Claws of the Dark Dragon Tribe to increase his Red-Eyes attack power even more which allowed it to overcome the strength of both Barbarians.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon – ATK/2400 – ATK/3000**

"Go Red-Eyes! Dark Flame Bullet!" Ryuzaki commanded. The dragon unleashed an orb of swirling red energy with black lighting crackling around the outside, this attack slammed into both of the Barbarians easily destroying the both of them due to their effects and taking out a large chunk of Jounouchi's remaining life points.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1595 – LP: 235**

Jounouchi looked incredibly worried probably panicking about the sudden turn of events but I knew that Jounouchi had at least one card that could defeat Red-Eyes however due to the rules if I said anything to help him then the blonde knucklehead would be disqualified so the only thing I could do was hope that Jounouchi remembered it soon.

Ryuzaki claimed that there was no chance of an amateur such as Jounouchi beating someone like him which caused the blonde to look seriously concerned but the group continued to cheer Jounouchi on as me and my sister remained quiet, watching as their words managed to get Jounouchi to settle down and he finally drew a card from his deck.

Mai started ordering Ryuzaki to defeat Jounouchi whilst calling him servant, however when I looked I noticed that he had a very wicked smirk resting on his face and this didn't sit well with me at all, I had to wonder exactly what Ryuzaki could be planning in that dinosaur brain of his.

"Jounouchi! In this duel, what do you think about the winner getting an opponent's rare card? If I win I'll take your Time Magician, okay?" Rex offered. My widened quite large at the fact that someone had actually instigated an ante in a duel tournament since I had never heard of such a thing being done before.

Jounouchi looked confused about the offer for a moment glancing down at the podium seeming to recall that he had actually played the card, Ryuzaki then continued on by stating that if he lost then the dinosaur duelist would give Jounouchi his Red-Eyes causing Mai to begin yelling at him again.

"Fine Ryuzaki. In this duel, if I lose, I'll give you the Time Magician!" Jounouchi responded. Everyone seemed shocked that Jounouchi had agreed to this bet but it did make sense after all the Red-Eyes would probably come in handy later on down the line.

"How about Claws of the Dark Dragon Tribe as well," Kylie muttered. Everyone blinked briefly as they looked at her for a moment. "The Red-Eyes is physically power but other than that it isn't much, Jounouchi is betting a rare card with a powerful effect, Ryuzaki should compensate accordingly," Kylie explained. Everyone nodded in understanding with Ryuzaki agreeing to give Dragon Nails up as well if Jounouchi won.

"But before that happens… I'll use this card," Jounouchi declared. He Flip Summoned Time Magician onto the field and this was exactly the perfect move for this situation despite the inherent risk in using Time Magician's Special Effect.

 **Time Magician – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 2, ATK/500, DEF/400**

The dial began to spin on the monster's spectre and all of us seemed to be holding a breath as we waited for the result of this move to come out, the arrow started slowing down in its' spinning and at one point it looked like it had stopped on skull which caused all of us on Jounouchi's side to tense up however the dial then moved to a time machine causing all of us to relax.

The energy of Time Magic wrapped around us as a vortex appeared in the sky above the duel arena and eventually the blinding light faded so we all looked over to see that the once glorious Red-Eyes Black Dragon and been completely fossilised due to the effect that the passage of time will have had on it.

Everyone had fallen silent upon seeing the fossilised form of Red-Eyes with Mai being especially shock, probably realising that her convoluted plan to get revenge on Jounouchi for his victory over her was crumbling at the seams all thanks to the minion she chose to use.

Ryuzaki never got the chance to give any kind of command to his 'precious' dragon as the moment he spoke a crack appeared on Red-Eyes' skull and right after he paused the whole dragon crumbled away into nothing and due to this destruction, Ryuzaki had effectively lost the duel causing a cheer from the others to break out.

 **Ryuzaki – LP: 840 – LP: 0**

Jounouchi jumped down from the podium and began to run towards us with Honda running towards him however just as they met Honda punched him in return for Jounouchi punching him earlier and they began to get into a serious argument that looked like they might hurt each other with Yugi trying to stop them from doing so.

"Leave them be Yugi. That's the way they show their gratefulness," Anzu commented. We looked at her and then back at the two boys who looked like they were hurting each other as they argued with Anzu tacking on that they currently looked like two idiots which the three of us had to agree on.

Once Jounouchi had collected Ryuzaki's star chips and the cards that had been bet in the duel, all of us started walking off in order to find a place to make camp since the sun had finally set beyond the edge of the horizon and now the darkness made the forest take on a slightly creepy vibe to it.

We all sat down and Honda immediately began to complain about how hungry he was causing me and Kylie to learned that none of them had brought any food with them to the island and this resulted in Kylie having to seize a hold of Jounouchi when he nearly ate a mushroom that could potentially be poisonous as Yugi pointed out although Mai's familiar voice cut across us again.

"Well… you are all together this time too, aren't you?," Mai questioned. We looked at her to see that she was eating a candy bar which caused Jounouchi to go ballistic at her as he wasn't going to let Mai eat in front of him. "What about it Jounouchi? What to trade, this chocolate for your star chips?," Mai responded to Jounouchi's outrage. Jounouchi began to salivate slightly at the prospect of food however he soon remembered what was more important.

"Don't joke around! These star chips are my life!" Jounouchi responded. Fortunately Mai wasn't so cold and she allowed them to share her food since she would be able to get inside the castle tomorrow and didn't need all the food she had and so her and Kylie set out the food that was available causing everyone to look at it with the four being surprised that we were so prepared.

"A duelist can only depend on his or herself. It's only natural to be prepared. Cooking is your duty," Mai ordered. As she did, her head had turned down to look at Yugi who agreed then she turned her attention to Jounouchi and Honda. "You two, go get water," Mai continued. Yugi and Honda happily complied with these tasks although Jounouchi was far more reluctant and even had to be pushed into movement by Honda.

"Obeying that woman's orders annoys me a lot," Jounouchi complained. Once the boys were gone Mai offered for the three of us to have a shower since she claimed we didn't have to smell like the boys and so Kylie went to have one first whilst the rest of us waited as I set up a fire pit area waiting for Yugi to return.

"Hey what's that?" Anzu questioned. I saw her hand was reaching for my right one so on instinct I jumped up and away from Anzu startling both her and Mai with my sudden reaction.

"It- It's nothing important," I responded. I mentally berated myself for stuttering at the beginning but fortunately for me, Kylie had finished and this let Anzu go in, with my sister out I picked up the bag and walked over to her as she sat down which allowed me to wrap a gel ice pack around her right hand since it was injured.

The boys returned and they began to get to work on the food with Mai standing guard outside of the shower curtain and yelling at Jounouchi when he had simply craned his head backwards by a few inches – hardly able to see anything – then a cruise ship caught our attention and I saw Mai had a reminiscent expression on her face although it soon disappeared when Anzu began to question the woman's motives for the tournament.

"I was a dealer on a cruise ship that travelled the world. Day after day I met people with money that played cards. These people only cared about money and power, those kinds of people are stupid but I became fed up with that and started to hate people," Mai admitted. I was surprised to hear such a backstory from the blonde woman although it quickly turned to why Anzu was always around the other three but it was soon cut off by Anzu's squeaking so Mai went in.

"What is it?" I heard Mai question Anzu. The girl claimed she heard something so whilst Mai looked out the back of the shower curtain, me and Kylie looked on either side but found nothing was there. "There's no one here," Mai responded. However it was at that point that the boys attracted our attention by one of the idiots – Honda or Jounouchi – asking if they could come in to check on the other girls since they saw me and Kylie… this resulted in Kylie and Mai punching both of them whilst I hugged Yugi briefly as thanks since he had been rational and tried to hold them back.

Once Anzu and me had cleaned ourselves off, we proceeded to sit down and enjoy our food with Yugi catching sight of Mai's nearly filled Duel Glove, he complimented her by claiming she'd probably be one of the first ones to get inside the castle tomorrow.

"Yeah, but eventually we'll have to duel each other Yugi, same to you Kylie-san and Katherine-chan," Mai stated. However Anzu cut her off by requesting that for this night we all forget about the tournament. "Now we're together but tomorrow everyone will be enemies! That's what it means to be a duelist!" Mai stated. She then proceeded to get up and go for a walk.

I was worried about Mai, she seemed to be so upset and angry about something but more than that, I thought she actually appeared to be quite lonely. It made me wonder if she had suffered from a rather difficult childhood or if something bad had happened to her – apart from the cruise ship – which made her want to avoid making any friends what so ever.

"Hey Kylie-san, Katherine-chan, I've been meaning to ask you guys something," Yugi called out. The two of looked at him as Kylie placed her food on the floor so that she wouldn't have to split her focus. "How do you two know Kaiba-kun exactly?" Yugi asked. Silence settled over the campfire as the others turned to look at us with me looked at Kylie through my peripheral vision.

"Do you know of a company in America called Hope Industries?" Kylie asked. Everyone seemed confused by how this question was important but in a way it would be helpful if Kylie had to explain less.

"Yeah, Hope Industries is the biggest game provider in the world. In fact my grandpa thought that Duel Monsters' success was partially due to the alliance between them and Industrial Illusions," Yugi explained. Everyone seemed shocked by this although Kylie let out a brief laugh at this before she composed herself.

"Well we're the heirs to that company," Kylie revealed. Everyone's eyes widened and all of them seemed to freeze stock still with Jounouchi's spoon hanging from his mouth. "As for how we know Seto, when we were children Kaiba Corporation had tried to build an alliance with my family's company but until Seto took over my father always refused with us and both Kaiba brothers meeting at galas as children," Kylie explained.

"How come your father only agreed recently?" Anzu asked. It was a simple questioned and one with a very simple answer but I had to wonder how much detail Kylie would give them about Kaiba Corporation's rather bloody and ugly past.

"Let's just say my father didn't approve of the ideologies of the previous leader but he was quite happy with Seto's goals," Kylie finished. Everyone nodded agreeing to leave it at that when a sound echoed from behind Anzu causing her to gasp in shock.

We all turned to look and out of the bushes came a young boy of about my age with long layered white hair and kind brown eyes, he wore a white wool sweater and green undershirt with a pair of jeans, as it turned out this boy was another friend of the group who was known as Bakura Ryo but everyone just called him Bakura so he joined us around the campfire with us looking at our decks.

"What the heck? Everyone brought out their cards?" Honda asked. All those around the camp fire had brought out their decks with Jounouchi kind of making a goofy speech about where we were as duelists and Bakura went on to ask which card Jounouchi liked the most.

"It'd have to be this one… from now on I am the Flame Swordsman!" Jounouchi declared. He held up the card for us to see and then stood up acting like he was swinging a sword around although then Honda stood up next to him with a card in his hand as well.

"I am this one, Commander," Honda commented unveiling the card. Anzu considered them to be children but Yugi prompted her to try and find a card that she identified with herself and so she looked through the deck she had briefly before pulling out a card.

"This one, Saint Magician," Anzu responded. Honda and Jounouchi didn't think too much of it but the name really did fit with Anzu's personality since she seemed to be extremely kind to everyone she had met – expect for Mai but that had now been resolved – and then the group prompted me and Kylie to pick ours.

"I've got two actually. My cherished Andromeda and Virgo," Kylie spoke up. She then pulled out Virgo for the others to see as they looked at the card. "Most people don't think much of her but her Special Effect more than makes up for her lack of strength since she can rejuvenate the player's Life Points once a turn by one thousand," Kylie explained. This did indeed impress the others and they then turned to me which caused me to look down shyly as I pulled out my symbol.

"Maiden of Wisdom, Athena," I answered. Holding it up for the others to see, we then all looked at Yugi who chose his favourite card Black Magician in order to represent himself which should have been quite obvious in all honesty.

"Somehow I understand a little of everyone's feelings. Having a card you like gives you a feeling of believing in a duel," Anzu commented. I notice Kylie roll her eyes with me barely stopped myself from doing the same although no one else saw the action, I reached out and clamped my hand around Kylie's hand to stop her from doing anything else and then turned to face Anzu.

"Not really. In the past when duels were fought with weapons, that weapon was an extension of the fighter, in a way our decks are an extension of our souls," I spoke up. Everyone nodded as they seem to understand what I said and Kylie then relaxed, Bakura then revealed that he chose the Change of Heart Spell card for himself.

"Oh yeah Yugi-kun… why not duel with me? Of course we won't bet any star chips," Bakura suggested. I don't know why but a strange chilling sensation began to grow and surround the area we were sat in but I couldn't pinpoint the source of this strangeness.

Everyone agreed to the duel with Bakura suggesting that the rest of us put our cards in Yugi's deck so that then it would be like all of us were facing off against him however when they turned to the two of us both myself and Kylie looked a little unsure about this.

"I don't give my cards to anyone but… I trust you Yugi, so here," Kylie spoke. She held out Virgo for Yugi to take and then the young boy turned to me however instead of giving him Athena straight away I went rummaging in my deck for a card and held out both to him.

"Since there are two of the Warrior type this spell card will be useful," I answered to his unspoken question. Yugi smiled and proceeded to shuffle the three cards into his deck with Kylie bringing out a playing mat for them to use and we all sat behind Yugi and Bakura sat across from him.

However suddenly the jiggling sound of clanking metal began to sound throughout the clearing and that strange dark feeling seemed to intensify as Bakura placed his hands around his chest and as if emerging from a body of water, a large golden ring appeared hanging from Bakura's neck, this ring had a triangle in the middle and five spikes handing beneath it but the most startling thing was the eye on the triangle.

"Th-that is…!" Yugi exclaimed in shock. Bakura gave no response or sound as all around us a dark void appeared as it felt like evil itself had crept into the place with the others being confused but Yugi surprised me the most by claiming it was a Dark Game however Kylie wasn't scared like the rest of us instead she was simply very angry.

"You don't know what your messing with! Stop this now Bakura!" Kylie yelled. Bakura looked at her with an interesting glint in his eye but that didn't stop him and suddenly it felt like I was being torn in two and then everything faded into darkness.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

I felt something very strange almost like Yugi had disappeared and a danger was approaching me so I activated the power of my Millennium Puzzle and took over Yugi's body allowing me to confront Bakura who was in shock that Yugi could still move.

"If it's a Dark Game, I'll be your opponent!" I challenged Bakura. He unleashed a laugh and I sensed that something was drastically different about Bakura but I couldn't place what it was.

"You have appeared… Other Yugi! I was waiting for you!," Bakura declared.


	10. Chapter 10

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **This chapter will have a change in POV, first part is Yami Yugi's, second part is Katherine's, I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy. Thank you to 2kirschcherry for the reviews and I was intending to leave the Labyrinth Brothers to Yugi and Jounouchi anyway, it wouldn't work otherwise.**

Chapter 10: - Evil Spirit of The Ring

I carefully moved my friends' still and lifeless bodies back so that the area around the dueling mat would be easily accessible, although I did stop when I noticed that Katherine's right hand was a golden colour instead of the deadly pale blue everyone else was but I shook it off and stood up to face Bakura with a dark look swirling in my eyes.

"Bakura… you're a duelist of the Dark Games aren't you?" I asked. This place held the same ominous presence as when I had dueled Pegasus before he kidnapped the soul of Yugi's grandfather and given how dead my friends were I feared that the same thing had happened to them.

"Bakura? I am not Bakura," The individual responded. I demanded to know exactly what his objective was and he unleashed an arrogant laugh. "Yugi you should know this. Whoever gets all the Millennium Items will have everything he wants from this world. If you win I'll bring back everyone's souls but if I win I'll take your Millennium Puzzle," Bakura responded.

As he spoke it felt like something was pulling in the back of my mind almost as if something was attempting to force its' way through but my missing memories were preventing me from recalling exactly what that was except for that this Dark Bakura had the Millennium Ring, although the moment he mentioning taking my Puzzle I forgot about the feeling and clasped my hand around its' cold metallic surface.

"Try it!" I challenged in response to his claim. With the opening banter done the two of us crouched on either side of the mat and I drew my first hand with one of the monsters being Honda's favourite.

 **Other Yugi – LP: 2000**

 **Dark Bakura – LP: 2000**

"My card is Commander in defence mode!" I declared. I placed the card in the declared position and the monster was projected just as in my last Dark Game against Pegasus however instead of the creature on the card, what came out was Honda, dressed as Commander, instead.

 **Commander – Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 2, ATK/750, DEF/700**

"W-what this? Where am I?" Honda questioned. He seemed just as confused as I was then he turned around and upon seeing me exclaimed his friend's name however I was more concerned about the fact that Honda appeared to be trapped inside of a card and I worried about the fate of the others and if they were in the cards they had chosen as well.

"Everyone's souls were transferred to the card they liked the most," I voiced my realisation. The person possessing Bakura's body laughed as he confirmed my suspicions by claiming it was too late to realise this fact now and then he proceeded to summon out the White Thief in response to my move.

 **White Thief – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 3, ATK/1000, DEF/700**

Dark Bakura ordered his monster to attack with Honda still being extremely confused, he was destroyed sending him to the Graveyard making me seriously concerned about what would happen to him whilst he was there but for the time being I had to focus on winning this duel until I would get him back safely.

Unfortunately my worry was soon increased when Dark Bakura revealed that soon the God of Death would arrive in the graveyard and when it took the card that Honda was trapped in, that meant that his body was going to die.

'Honda-kun, I will surely save you from the graveyard.' I thought. Glancing down at my hand I saw that there was another of my friend's soul cards already nestled within it. 'I can't play everyone's soul card carelessly but to defeat the White Thief there's no other than Jounouchi-kun's Flame Swordsman.' I thought. My hand drifted over to the necessary card and I slid it out so that I could play it.

"Next is this card, Flame Swordsman," I spoke. I then played the card and just as with the Commander, the individual that was projected was in fact Jounouchi who seemed incredibly confused before turning to look at me and having the exact same reaction as Honda did earlier.

 **Flame Swordsman – Attribute: Fire, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

"You are… Yugi?" Jounouchi exclaimed in shock. He soon unfroze from the shock that he had been sent into and looked down at himself then looked back up at me. "What's going on?" Jounouchi asked. I would have to explain the situation clearly yet quickly to get Jounouchi to help.

"Be calm and listen. Your soul is now sealed inside the card of the Flame Swordsman, if we can't win this duel, you can't come back and if you're defeated in battle, you will go to the graveyard , like Honda-kun," I explained. Jounouchi froze once again upon hearing his potential fate however once I explained that I would need his help, Jounouchi readily agreed although upon turning to face Dark Bakura he screamed again.

"Ba-Bakura? Bakura's the enemy? I don't get this dream one bit," Jounouchi commented. I swiftly informed him of Dark Bakura's true nature although Jounouchi didn't understand it he still proceeded to attack Dark Bakura's White Thief destroying it.

 **Dark Bakura – LP: 2000 – LP: 1200**

Dark Bakura frowned at the damage that had been inflicted upon his Life Points however the next card he played was one that he positioned face down in defensive mode which caused me to pause momentarily as I tried to figure out what this evil spirit could be up to, although I did voice my query.

"That doesn't matter, the enemy is weak," Jounouchi responded. I attempted to stop Jounouchi from doing something dangerous however he didn't listen to me and instead charged right in causing the card to flip up allowing me to see that it was a Metamorph Pot which caused me to grit my teeth.

Dark Bakura asked if I understood and I voiced the monster's identify which caused Jounouchi to slightly freak out as he hadn't run into this specific monster before which caused him to wonder if he had made a mistake by destroying the monster.

"When a Metamorph Pot appears, our entire hand must go to the graveyard. In this moment, it's a good thing that I have no cards with others' souls in them but…," I explained. Jounouchi apologised but I didn't blame him for what happened, I discarded my hand and drew anew with one of the cards being drawn was Black Magician.

'Black Magician! Black Magician is the card that has Yugi's soul!' I thought as my eyes stayed focused on the card. Dark Bakura chuckled as he played another monster face down in defence and a second card also face down in the Spell and Trap zone, I knew from his moves that he was attempting to freak me out but it wouldn't work.

With another set card it was far too dangerous for me to keep Yugi's card in my hand so I put it into play causing Yugi's soul to be projected outwards but I didn't wait for any reaction as I immediately seized another card in my hand which would allow me to undo a mistake that I had made early in the duel.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

"And also a Spell card, Resurrection of the Dead to revive Honda-kun," I finished. This revived Commander and with it, Honda's soul putting him back into the game where he was surrounded by Jounouchi and Yugi causing him to ask what was going on.

"Seems we were transformed into Monsters from Duel Monsters," Jounouchi responded. Yugi didn't really understand everything either although the young boy's appearance caused Honda to ask if he wasn't up where I was causing the three to look at me.

"Yugi," I prompted. Yugi appeared to be understand exactly what I was getting at as he decided that now was not the time to be keeping secrets from our friends since we all need to fight together in order to survive this Dark Game.

"That Yugi is actually a spirit that sleeps within the Millennium Puzzle. It's the other me," Yugi explained. The other two looked completely confused by Yugi's explanation but didn't ask questions. "Sorry… for not telling you about this until now. It was not my intention to hide this from everyone but…," Yugi apologised. However Honda and Jounouchi claimed that we were all still friends which had relieved me slightly as I was worried that they wouldn't trust me if I revealed myself to them.

With that out of the way Honda asked where the girls were with Yugi correctly guessing that they were still within the deck and Jounouchi suggested that they attempt to end this duel before any of the girls' were put in harm's way with the blonde offering to make the next move.

"Wait a moment! This turn is mine!" Yugi reminded. The young boy stepped forward and used the Black Magician's powers to destroy Dark Bakura's face down card however it turned out to be another Metamorph Pot and so once more the both of us discarded our hands and drew new cards.

'Anzu, Kylie and Katherine's souls card!' I thought in shock. The fact that I had drawn all three girls' Soul Cards in the same hand was simply shocking, having seen my expression Dark Bakura mocked me and played a card face down potentially being a third Metamorph Pot thus putting the girls in danger and then he flipped over the Trap Card he played earlier causing shock to run through my system.

"I activate Just Desserts," Dark Bakura explained. From its' image a ghostly hand leapt out and launched towards my face making a gripping motion and when it hit, it felt like the very Life Points I had lost were being torn out of my own body making my grip my chest and curl in slightly due to the pain.

"For each monster you have on the field, it inflicts five hundred damage points directly to your Life Points," Dark Bakura revealed. I heard my friends cry out in worry about me and whilst I reassured them that I was indeed fine, another hit like that would end this duel for us.

 **Other Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 500**

I looked at my hand and knew that the girls weren't safe in it so I had to get all three of them out onto the field thankfully the Hope sisters had provided me with the means to do just this.

"First I activate the Spell, Warrior's Counsel. If I have a Warrior type monster on the field this Spell allows me to Special Summon another from my deck or hand and I choose Maiden of Wisdom, Athena," I declared. Once I placed the card down a light began to glow and Katherine was released from her card.

 **Maiden of Wisdom, Athena – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 8, ATK/2800, DEF/2700**

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

I blinked slightly as the light finally returned to my vision however when I looked down at my hand I was surprised to find my right hand free of any gold material and that I was dressed in a rather ancient Grecian style dress with bronze armour at the top, bronze armbands on both wrists with a spear resting in my left hand and a golden shield over my right which bore the head of a snake haired woman and a weight was on my head.

"What in the-," I began to mutter. However when I raised my head I was cut off as a scream tore from my throat upon seeing a giant Bakura leering down on me, I took a slightly step back as I tried to calm my racing heart only for it to speed up once again when I looked behind me and saw a giant Other Yugi causing another scream to erupt.

"Katherine-chan calm down it's ok," Yugi's voice called out. I looked in his direction to see him, Jounouchi and Honda standing there all dressed as the cards they had chosen to represent themselves which meant that I was dressed as Athena, making the weight on my head the helmet, and with the freaky dark appearance of our surrounding, I knew one thing for sure.

"We're in the Shadow Realm," I bluntly stated. Yugi blinked slightly at my statement and the other two looked confused although giant Bakura raised an eyebrow however I noticed his hair was slightly wilder and his eyes more angled then the one I had met. "You're not Bakura," I hissed. This caused Dark Bakura to laugh as he looked at me.

"Quite the perceptive child isn't she," Dark Bakura muttered. Yugi swiftly explained to me the circumstance of the duel and I nodded my head to show him that I understood before looking up at Other Yugi.

"You'd best get Kylie and Anzu out here soon as. It's risky but we're safer together," I called out. Other Yugi nodded and so he then summoned out Kylie by playing Virgo in the Spell and Trap Zone which was due to Virgo's Special Effect.

 **Virgo – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 2, ATK/500, DEF/2500**

I watched as my sister appeared dressed in a long flowing blue dress with a cord of red rope around her waist as white wings expanded behind her, she blinked and looked down at herself before looking at me.

"I have one question. Why am I in a dress?" Kylie asked. My sister had always hated dresses believing that they got in the way and prevented her from being able to move properly which made her seriously upset whenever she had to wear one.

"Because your soul has been trapped inside of Virgo and we're currently in the middle of a duel for said souls," I shyly explained. Kylie sighed and looked down before looking around herself examining the situation and then her piercing green eyes swiftly found my own.

"Shadow Realm," Kylie stated. I nodded to confirm her suspicions, this caused Kylie to mutter something under her breath before turning up to face Other Yugi. "Due to Virgo's Special Effect, here," Kylie spoke. She held up her hand and from it a light flew out and settled into Other Yugi's chest restoring the Life Points he had lost.

 **Yugi – LP: 500 – LP: 1500**

Other Yugi proceeded to play a monster in face down defence position and when the card lifted up I saw Anzu underneath and she called out to us so the boys panicked and rushed over to hide her from Dark Bakura's sight with me and Kylie rushing over to be with them.

"Why is everyone cosplaying? Me too?!" Anzu exclaimed in shock. I looked underneath to see that she was focused on the magical sceptre that came with Saint Magician being a Spellcaster type, I then stood back up to see Kylie focused on watching Dark Bakura for any suspicious moves.

"Hey shush! Don't speak too loud! That freaky Bakura will notice you!" Jounouchi warned. This resulted in Yugi explaining the current situation to Anzu by claiming that Bakura was being controlled by a Duelist of Dark Games and Anzu noticed that there were two Yugis which Yugi called 'the other me'. "I don't really get it but to put it simple there's a cool Yugi and a normal Yugi here," Jounouchi explained.

Sadly his comments had the effect of hurting Yugi's feelings and so in retaliation he attacked using Black Magic although myself, Kylie and Other Yugi called out in an attempt to stop him when we saw the monster that was going to be destroyed but he didn't listen and when it was destroyed my spear flew out in front of Yugi and electrical pain charged through my body and I collapsed to the ground.

"Katherine-chan what happened? Are you ok?" Yugi asked. I numbly felt Kylie scooping me into her arms as Yugi knelt down in front of me a look of panic and horror etched onto his features with the blurry images of the others standing behind him.

"If the monster that destroys the Electric Lizard isn't a Zombie then it isn't allowed to attack on the next turn but due to my effect as Athena all card effects from the opponent are directed at me," I managed to explain.

"My turn is over," Other Yugi declared. He played a card down into the Spell and Trap zone, Jounouchi and Honda attempted to cover up Anzu once more but Dark Bakura told them that it was useless and correctly identified who they were hiding since it was obvious.

"I'll tell you that this is the Flesh Eating Insect," Dark Bakura claimed. He then set a monster in face down in defence position and Yugi explained that once flipped over or attacked by any of the others, the Flesh Eating Insect would destroy one of the monsters on the field with only Kylie being safe in the Spell and Trap zone.

"Yugi! There's got to be a way to prevent it from activating?" Jounouchi questioned. Yugi explained that there was one way out of this predicament and it was the card that Other Yugi had played however in order to activate its' effect a monster on our side would need to be sacrificed.

Honda offered to be the sacrifice however part way through his speech, Jounouchi slammed the hilt of his sword into Honda's stomach causing him to fall down and so the blonde charged right in in order to ensure that Other Yugi could activate the card which he did after a bit of pleading from Jounouchi about not wanting his friends to be sacrificed.

"I activate the trap Hunting Horn of Death! I sacrifice one monster on my field to activate it, your monster's effect is negated and it is destroyed!" Other Yugi declared. Both the bug and Jounouchi were encased in a bright wall of light and they disappeared from our sight causing tears to well within my eyes at Jounouchi's sacrifice and that he consider me and Kylie friends despite the short time we've known each other.

"Don't worry you will all go to the same place," Dark Bakura mocked. I finally felt the strength of my body returned to me and I shakily rose to my feet with Kylie staying beside me in order to make sure that nothing bad happened to me but once at my full height, Kylie turned her glare onto Bakura.

"We're going to save Jounouchi and we're going to beat you so clam up you Soul Stealer before I come over there and do it myself," Kylie hissed. Dark Bakura laughed at my sister's threat but I knew she could and would carry it out if she got angry enough but at the moment she was more concerned with everyone else.

Anzu's tears flowed down her face and landed on the Saint Magician's card which in turn activated the card's effect thus letting Other Yugi retrieve Resurrection of the Dead form the Graveyard and he swiftly used it to bring Jounouchi back resulting in all of us welcoming him back after he realised where he was as he freaked out slightly once he was brought back.

"None of them being in the graveyard is weird," Dark Bakura spat. I clamped my hand onto Kylie's wrist so that she wouldn't do something that would put her soul at risk but that didn't mean my feelings weren't the same as those my sister was currently feeling.

"The friendship between the seven of us will definitely create a miracle," Other Yugi responded with venom in his voice. Dark Bakura claimed he would teach us our friendship meant absolutely nothing and to begin with he brought out the High Priestess in attack position.

 **High Priestess – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 3, ATK/1100, DEF/800**

"And also this," Dark Bakura revealed. He showed us the image of the Spell card that Bakura had used to represent himself the Change of Heart. "With this card I can turn you against your friends, due to Athena's effect it will automatically target Katherine but if I had a choice it would be you Yugi," Dark Bakura stated. In response to this Kylie immediately pulled me and Yugi behind her in an effort to protect us both.

"Just how low will this guy fall!" Other Yugi yelled. I had never heard such anger in his tone before and this really did shock me, Dark Bakura stated that Other Yugi could say what he wanted but here and now our friendship would end.

Dark Bakura played the card and as it turned out the real Bakura had also been sealed into his chosen card but instead of listening to Dark Bakura's command, Bakura possessed the High Priestess with him begging that Yugi attack him which would end the duel however none of the others wanted to banish their friend.

Dark Bakura insulted the real one yet before any of us trapped souls could make a single move a glow emitted from the Puzzle and Dark Bakura screamed in pain before Bakura was back in control of his body with Dark Bakura holding the High Priestess and so Yugi ended the duel with a swift Black Magic, ending the Dark Game as a result.

Bakura, Yugi, Kylie and myself woke up first and we learned that Bakura's item was known as the Millennium Ring and that his father had discovered it whilst on a visit in Egypt, where they all might be from, and the person who sold it to him claimed he was from the Dark World – potentially a another name for the Shadow Realm – for whatever reason Bakura's father bought it and gave it to his son.

The others then proceeded to wake up with Bakura accidentally scaring both boys as they automatically hugged each other before calming down and then pushing each other apart in embarrassment causing all of us to break out into laughter before calming down although Anzu had a curious look on her face.

"By the way… there were two Yugis… that was really a dream?" Anzu spoke up. Yugi flinched for a moment but before anyone could respond to Anzu a scream went up from somewhere in the woods so we rushed off to check what had caused such a scream.


	11. Chapter 11

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I apologise for the lateness of the chapter, it has been a somewhat draining week for me, I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 11: - Pitch Black Duel!

We ran through the forest as fast as we could in order to reach the source of the scream and as we ran Jounouchi commented that the scream had sounded like Mai's which seemed to only encourage us to run faster in order to reach her and find out what on earth could make such a strong woman as Mai scream in fear like she did.

"Mai-san!" Yugi called out once we reached a clearing. I spotted a duel arena and behind Mai stood a tall and imposing man with spiked hair that was mostly hidden by a black hat with cruel eyes, he wore an entirely black outfit with the letter P on the right side and the letter K on the left side of his coat, a feeling of suspicion towards the individual immediately sprung up within me.

"Are you okay? What's happened?" Jounouchi asked. His voice showed obvious concern for Mai who looked more distraught than when Jounouchi had defeated her and this automatically made me dislike the man since I had a suspicion that he was behind Mai's depressed expression.

"This saves me a lot of trouble. My prey comes right to me!" The man commented sounding sadistically gleeful. I noticed that he wore two Duel gloves with two rings of ten on each which caused me to place my hand on my deck just in case something went seriously wrong, Honda asked exactly who this man was.

"Be careful! He's a Player Killer! A duelist hired to take competitors' star chips and kick them off the island!" Mai warned. Her voice contained all the worry and fear she was currently experiencing, then that disgusting man walked forward and showed us that Mai's Duel Glove was empty of all the star chips she had collected effectively disqualifying her with the man declaring that he would disqualify Yugi just as he had done to Mai.

"Yugi… Kylie-san, this is as far as I go. I can't realise my dream of duel with either of you," Mai admitted. I felt something very dark begin to coil through my form as I stared at the depressed look on Mai's face and the twisted expression of glee that the Player Killer wore.

"Losers can shout all they like," Player Killer gloated. He then threw Mai forward and she stumbled a bit put managed to regain her balance however the Player Killer's words had hit a sensitive cord in me and so I stepped forward with my head bowed.

"You disgust me," I hissed with every ounce of venom leaking off of the words that left my throat. I raised my head to see the Player Killer looking down at me with those cruel eyes but it only angered me even more. "Bullies like you need to taught a lesson, so how about you duel me," I kept going.

"Kylie-san don't do it, he's ruthless!" Mai's voice shouted from behind me. Her panic was clear to my ears but I wouldn't back down from this and instead kept my eyes on the Player Killer who easily met my stare but I did notice that his eyebrow raised upon hearing my name.

"Kylie, as in Kylie Hope. There's been a wager amongst all us as to who will take you out. Alright then I agree to your duel," Player Killer responded. This caused a small smile to quirk on my face before I pushed it down and I lay a hand on my hip as I looked at Player Killer.

"My terms are this, if you win, you get all my star chips but if I win then you give back all of Mai's star chips," I spoke. Player Killer nodded his head to show his agreement with this and he went back around to take up position on the red podium, I took the ice pack off my hand a flexed it to see that the injury was slightly numb thanks to the cold and I could duel so I gave it back to Katherine.

"Kylie are you sure about this?" Other Yugi's voice echoed. I turned to look at the man of mystery who wore a deeply concerned expression but I lay my hand on his shoulder with a confident look on my face.

"I've never scared easy so his intimidation tactics aren't going to shake me. More than that, a friend of mine needs me so I'm not backing down," I responded. Other Yugi nodded in understanding and so he went back to join the others whilst I took my position on the blue podium as I shuffled my deck on the way up.

"Now, on this island, we Player Killers are searching for duelists to hunt. Kylie Hope, you're one of the prized targets, I'm really lucky," Player Killer commented. My teeth gritted together as I glared at the worm for his words but I needed to keep my cool if I wanted to win against a heartless man like him.

"Lucky… that's a laugh, I'm going to annihilate you and it's going to be painful. I am not in the mood for any of Pegasus' crazy stunts tonight so I'm going to put you out of a job," I shot back. However Player Killer simply unleashed a dark laugh as he looked at me, the worm revealed that he wasn't a Player Killer just for money but he was mainly in this job for the thrill of breaking weak duelists and even called me a weak duelist.

"If you think I'm going to be bullied by the likes of you, then think again. I duel with all my soul and heart which is exactly why people like you will never defeat me," I hissed. Player Killer didn't even look bothered by the insulting barbs I had thrown at him but I didn't care if he was affected, after all I just wanted to get this duel started already.

"You have no hope of beating me as long as this darkness exists," Player Killer commented. This concerned me although Mai called out that when she had dueled against him, the Player Killer had her completely terrified with Player Killer commenting that when the darkness fell no duelist could rest easily otherwise the darkness would swallow them and I would share the same fate as Mai.

"So you're not only a bully but a coward, typical. True duelists fight with honour and kindness, not the underhanded tactic a weakling like you uses," I spat. My words caused Player Killer's eyes narrowed in anger as I had finally gotten a rise out of him which would allow me to insult him some more in this duel now that I knew his weakness.

"Watch your mouth you pathetic whore!" Player Killer yelled. I simply held up my Duel Glove so that he could see the eight star chips I had collected and this caused the worm to look confused.

"Remember all of Mai's eight or all eight of mine," I reminded. Then Player Killer claimed I was putting more than just my star chips on the line, something suddenly appear around my ankles causing me to glance down and I saw that cuffs had come out of the podium and locked around my ankles, then to make it worse flames began to shoot up towards me from both sides of the podium.

"KYLIE!" I heard Katherine's scream through the flames. Fortunately I had angled my body so that the flames wouldn't hit me although the cuffs around my ankles did make that slightly difficult, I heard Jounouchi demand that Player Killer turn off the flamethrowers but I knew he wouldn't listen and so I waited for them to recede.

"I can see the fear growing in your eyes Kylie. I can hear you quaking in your boots, you're beginning to realise the nightmare you've stepped into. I do believe you're beginning to panic," Player Killer boasted. Honda and Jounouchi tried to talk me out of dueling the Player Killer however in response to him and them I simply put my hand on my hip as I sent the worm a bored look.

"Are you done yet? Or do you still need to blow some more smoke before starting the duel?" I questioned. Katherine groaned as I saw her put her head in her hands whilst the others looked completely shocked by my reaction except for Other Yugi who held a smirk on his face, Player Killer finally started the duel.

 **Kylie – LP: 2000**

 **Player Killer – LP: 2000**

"I'll let you experience the terror of darkness. My card is the Castle of Concealing Darkness," Player Killer commented. The form of the creature he chose was projected onto the field and I watched as inky shadows wove across the worm's field preventing me from seeing anything which put me at a severe disadvantage and the castle received a Field Power Bonus.

 **Castle of Concealing Darkness – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level 4, ATK/920, DEF/1930**

 **Castle of Concealing Darkness – ATK/920 – ATK/1192, DEF/1930 – DEF/2509**

"I'm not afraid of the dark, worm," I called out. Player Killer's face disappeared behind the shadows but I could still feel his cruel eyes glowering at me and he attempted to wrap his twisted logic around my mind but I refused to be affected and Mai called out to me revealing that he did the same thing to her.

'Since I have no idea what monsters are waiting for me in those shadows, an attack is too risky. I'll just have to play it safe.' I thought. With that done I played my Aries in defence mode allowing the golden fleeced ram to appear on the field.

 **Aries – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level: 3, ATK/1200, DEF/1400**

"I use this card… to attack," Player Killer commented. I heard the sounds of a monster being projected onto the field but couldn't see it. "Dark Absolute," Player Killer ordered. His monster obeyed and from the shadows it attacked devouring my Aries within the darkness they cast.

The others discussed that the Player Killer was basically cheating since I couldn't defend against or attack the monster that the worm was summoning out but Bakura encouraged the others to believe in me which was kind of him however Player Killer then laughed cutting off any discussion that they were having as he taunted me to make a move.

"Leo in defence mode," I announced. The auburn lion was projected onto the field with its' wild mane appearing like a forest of needles due to how sharp they actually were, his tail swished through the air as he lay crouched on the floor with his sharps eyes locked on the shadows.

 **Leo – Attribute: Fire, Type: Beast, Level 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

"It's my turn to add a card for another attack. I call forth a Dark Monster," Player Killer taunted. He summoned out a second monster but didn't attack this time. "You're terrified aren't you Kylie? Admit it, all of your courage has been devoured by my shadowy fog. Yes all that's left is a trembling little duelist, powerless to defend herself," Player Killer continued.

"Mai-san isn't there a way to stop him?" Anzu questioned. Of course Mai didn't have an answer but I focused on trying to figure out a way to see through the shadows since I didn't have the necessary cards to be able to destroy the Castle of Concealing Darkness but then I decided to attack the very darkness itself and I switched Leo into attack mode.

"Leo prepare. Flame Burst!" I commanded. My Leo rose to his feet and summoned a wild ring of fire around his mane before launching it into the darkness and its' light broke through the shadows for a brief moment allowing me to see the worm's monsters for the faintest of seconds before they were engulfed in the shadows once again.

The Player Killer wasn't bothered by my move and instead had his monster attack with the same move as last time which destroyed Leo and since he was in attack mode I lost some of my Life Points, but at least now I had an idea on how to defeat Player Killer's shadows.

 **Kylie – LP: 2000 – LP: 1606**

"Kylie do you understand? I am invincible in the darkness," Player Killer spoke out. However I wasn't going to let the worm rattle me, I had always despised bullies especially those that picked on the people closest to me and I wasn't one to back down from a fight when a friend needed my help.

"Invincible… that's a laugh. All you're doing is sitting in the darkness and attacking without showing your face, like a pathetic little coward!" I shot back. This resulted in Player Killer using the flamethrowers on me once again and over the roaring fires I heard the quiet groan of my sister probably concerning how blunt I was being.

"You okay Kylie?" Jounouchi called out. I didn't have time to respond to him as Player Killer warned me that if I wanted to live that I had to 'learn my place' and be quiet by understand the situation I was in, claiming that my life was in his hand, although I unleashed a light laugh with Player Killer demanding to know what I was laughing at.

"I'm laughing because I can see right through you now," I commented. This seriously confused Player Killer and he demanded to have an answer from me. "You are the bogeyman worm, scaring little children into being afraid of the dark until they realise the dark is nothing to be afraid of… just like you. Once a person realises they shouldn't be afraid of the unknown then any power the darkness has vanishes," I explained.

"You wish it were that simple," Player Killer yelled back. I smirked as I looked at the card that would ensure his defeat and positioned two of my fingers so that the card was gripped between them.

"But it is that simple and I have the card to prove it. A card that will expose you and lift up that veil of shadows that you're so keen to hide behind, your life will end in five turns," I responded. I then held up the card but only showed him the back as I wanted my opponent to see what it was like to be afraid of something unknown.

"What's that?" Player Killer questioned. I could hear the growing fear in his voice as he spoke, I pointed the card towards him and angled in down slightly to ensure that the artwork was still hidden so that he couldn't even try and guess what it was that I was holding.

"Let's just say that it will shine some light on the situation," I responded. I felt a smirk begin pulling at the corners of my lips as now that worm would be the one sweating about the unknown and the fact that I would drag him out into the light before defeating him "Once I'm through with you… you'll know what real darkness is," I growled.

"What? What does she intend to do?" Anzu questioned. Mai stated that whilst she didn't know what I had planned for the worm, she knew that I wasn't simply pretending to be confident.

"My sister never needs to pretend," Katherine spoke up. I saw everyone glance at my little sister, surprise evident in their eyes except for Other Yugi who kept his gaze locked on the duel. "She's got no reason to be afraid so her confidence is true and unshakeable… nothing is going to scare her," Katherine admitted

"Katherine's correct, Kylie is simply turning the Player Killer's own tactics against him," Other Yugi spoke up. Everyone then turned to look at him before looking back at my sister and then deciding to focus their attention on the duel that was still going on with the worm commenting that my card was a bluff and daring me to show it to him.

"Now why should I show you my card when you've gone to all the trouble to hide yours' in the dark," I shot back. Player Killer claimed that I was simply stalling for time. "You don't trust me, why I'm hurt. I am a lady and a lady never lies especially about the cards she holds but you're that insistent here let me show you my card," I spoke with mockery in my tone. With that I flicked the card over to reveal it artwork and declared that it was the Spell card Sealing Swords of Light.

"Huh, Sealing Swords of Light?" Player Killer questioned. It was obvious that he had never come across this card before and as such wasn't aware of its' rather dazzling effects.

"The blinding magic of the Sealing Swords of Light will not only stop all of the opponent's monsters from attacking for three turns but it will bathe this entire field in a light so illuminating that the creatures lurking in those shadows will be exposed," I explained. I didn't even let anyone else get a word in before I continued with my speech.

"It will be all too soon for your monsters as their shadowy empire is destroyed but rather than play it now, I think I'll make you wait and see how you like worrying over the unknown. You're going down in five turns worm. **Five** turns," I finished up my speech and played a card face down in the Spell and Trap zone and I summoned my Aquarius in defence mode, Aquarius was an elderly man clothed in a blue toga with a golden water jug in his arms that was filled with clear water.

 **Aquarius – Attribute: Water, Type: Aqua, Level: 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1500**

"What's the matter worm have you lost your appetite for bullying?" I questioned when I noticed the lack of sound connected to movement. Player Killer soon responded to my words claiming he would teach me about loss soon enough, then I heard Mai claim that I was using another weapon apart from cards to combat the darkness we were facing but the others were confused by this.

"My sister never duels alone. An entire army stands behind her, ready to support and defend her from any danger!" Katherine spoke. Everyone fell silent after Katherine's speech but her eyes stayed locked on to me and I sent her a small smile to show my gratitude for her eternal support.

"Kylie is an exceptional duelist and I have faith that she will win, just as you all support me when I duel, I ask that you support her now," Other Yugi spoke as well. I had to admit that if the situation weren't what it was I would probably be blushing, Bakura stated that my other weapon was more than likely words with Mai adding that the current situation prevented me from seeing the worm or my attacks reaching his monsters but there was a another way to reach, my voice thus my words.

"Kylie has a razor sharp tongue. Her cutting insults can destroy more than Life Points or monsters, they destroy faith and pride" Katherine explained. There was a note of unshakeable trust in her words, everyone seemed confused by this but no one questioned her as Player Killer made his moving by bringing out the Card Hunting Death God which would destroy all Spell cards on the field.

 **Card Hunting Death God – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 5, ATK/1380, DEF/1930**

 **Card Hunting Death God – ATK/1380 – ATK/1794, DEF/1930 – DEF/2509**

Player Killer ordered his monster to strike at my face down card causing everyone to panic with the worm himself practically howling with glee however everyone soon froze in shock when the Death God suddenly froze in place. This was because as my face down wasn't actually the Sealing Swords of Light, instead it was the Trap card Curse of Hexagram and the Trap proceeded to seize a hold of the Death God and weakened its' power as a result.

 **Card Hunting Death God – ATK/1794 – ATK/1094**

"In Duel Monsters one must always be cautious of the Death God and its' Special Effect to send Spell cards to the Graveyard and being the coward that you are, I knew that you'd have one somewhere so I planted a Trap for it and since it has been ensnared all of my Spell cards are now safe from harm," I lectured. Everyone proceeded to cheer upon the explanation of my move as they congratulating me with Mai being amazed at the moves that I was making in the situation.

"But she still can't let her guard down," Bakura commented. He was right as I still had to bring those shadows to an end along with Player Killer's Life Points but now the flow of this duel was beginning to tip in my favour as Player Killer got enraged that he had been tricked by my move.

"You fooled yourself resulting in the waste of a powerful card but with the danger gone, I'll really lay my Swords of Light and another Spell card, both face down," I shot back. The worm didn't seem worried as he claimed that the powerful monsters that were left in his deck would destroy me.


	12. Chapter 12

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 12: - Cut Through The Darkness

"Woah that was some move. Kylie caught one of this bastard's most powerful monsters and now she's got two face down cards on the table to boot," Jounouchi commented. The Player Killer attempted to make it seem like he wasn't fazed at all by me capturing the Death God however I heard a slight quiver in his voice as he spoke demanding that I tell him what I had set.

"Getting nervous worm? The darkness of hell won't be coming for me, it is you that will be swallowed by the darkness," I pointed out. Player Killer began to claim that my words were a lie but he never got the chance to speak those words. "It's no lie. With each turn that passes, your loss becomes more and more looming, gaining a strangle hold on you. Four turns left," I reminded him as I held up the four fingers on my right hand to signify this.

"Whore, do you know of your situation?" Player Killer declared. He then attempted to intimidate me once more by using the flamethrowers however I would not let myself be broken by a weak fool like him.

"This that supposed to scare me? Or are you running scared?" I questioned. This only served to aggravate the worm even more whilst the others continued their talk about my words being my greatest weapon with Mai pointing out that the darkness gave my opponent the advantage. "You can't stall forever, sooner or later, you'll have to make your move," I reminded Player Killer. He reached for his deck and pulled a card from it then he began to laugh cruelly.

"I've drawn my ultimate card! Appear Supreme King of the Dark Demon World. He's my trump card! Unfortunately before you played your trump card, it will be destroyed! Supreme King destroy her Aquarius!" Player Killer declared. This caused the others to worry since my defence would be destroyed however I was far more confident that Aquarius would remain on the field.

In alignment with Player Killer's orders his King began to attack however instead of the attack flowing straight towards Aquarius it actually rushed towards the Curse of Hexagram due to the light it emitted and since the Death God was ensnared within its' grasp, the Death God was destroyed thus as a result in the worm lost quite a few Life Points for the destruction of his monster.

 **Player Killer – LP: 2000 – LP: 494**

"What is that? Damn Kylie, to force me to attack, she used Curse of Hexagram. She was even prepared for this," Player Killer cried. I sneered at him, now he was beginning to see that he wasn't capable of stopping me from claiming victory in this match, I felt my fist tightened before I managed to calm down and focused on the duel.

"They don't do well when they dare step out of the darkness. Now let's bring all your monsters into the light. I now dispel all the shadows with the Sealing Swords of Light!" I declared as I flipped over the Spell card. The holographic projection briefly blinded all of us but once the light faded to a more manageable degree, we saw that multiple swords formed from glowing light encompassed the worm's field and dispelled the shadows allowing me to see his monsters and their stats at last.

 **Barox – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 5, ATK/1380, DEF/1530**

 **Barox – ATK/1380 – ATK/1794, DEF/1530 – DEF/1989**

 **Dark Chimera – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 5, ATK/1610, DEF/1460**

 **Dark Chimera – ATK/1610 – ATK/2093, DEF/1460 – DEF/1898**

 **Supreme King of the Dark Demon World – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1530**

 **Supreme King of the Dark Demon World – ATK/2000 – ATK/2600, DEF/1530 – DEF/1989**

"Stop it! Stop! I can't stand the light!" Player Killer cried. With the shadows dispelled I could see my opponent clear as day and he was cowering from the overwhelming brightness that my Spell card was producing and I felt a smirk pull at my lips as the Player Killer had now be outed as the coward that he really was.

"No more hiding worm the darkness will conceal you no longer. Three turns left and then you're finished, I didn't use the Swords just to illuminate your monsters, it also causes all your monsters on the field to be frozen for three turns, starting right now. That means you can't make any attacks whilst I implement my strategy," I explained and decided to pass my turn.

Player Killer remained frozen for a few moments so I commented on this and he finally made his move by drawing a card from his deck and when he looked at it a twisted look of glee entered his eyes and they then focused on me.

"I just drew a good card. Kylie, your plan to defeat me in three turns is over! The Chaos Shield card," Player Killer revealed. I gritted my teeth at the fact that this card had make its' appearance in the duel as it would cause more trouble for me if my plan didn't go how I wanted it to.

"Well that could be problematic given that it switches all monsters to defence and then raises their defence points," I commented. Player Killer however revealed that he was actually going to combine the Chaos Shield Spell with his Castle of Concealing Darkness which created a cylinder of yellow energy encompassing all of the monsters beneath the castle.

 **Castle of Concealing Darkness – DEF/2509 – DEF/3200**

 **Barox – DEF/1989 – DEF/2600**

 **Dark Chimera – DEF/1898 – DEF/2600**

 **King of Supreme King of the Dark Demon World – DEF/1989 – DEF/2600**

"This is terrible. He is using the castle in the sky to make the shield cover all his monsters below and increase all of their defence power," Mai explained. I could practically smell the apprehension and agitation that had sprung up within the spectators after Player Killer had declared his move and they saw how strong a defence his monsters now had.

"With this Chaos Shield, the attack of your monsters are useless! Do you still think that you can beat me in three turns?! What do you say bitch?" Player Killer yelled. However I had no intention of backing down against the worm, I never had and I never would no matter what kind of situation I was in or how strong those people may be, I would never tolerate a bully especially when that bully disrespected my friends.

"You don't realise that you've just exposed your weakness," I fired back at him. In response to my words, the Player Killer's eyes became engulfed in rage as he pointed a finger at me with his body shaking with the restrained rage that flooded his system.

"W-what weakness? Stop saying things that don't make sense!" Player Killer cried. I almost felt like laughing at his words, I had realised exactly what he was doing and what he had probably done during his match against Mai, it was exposed through the cheap tactics and psychological attacks that he'd been using.

"Since this duel began, I've been analysing your strategy! Like I said before, you're nothing but a coward which you've just proven here and now through the use of Chaos Shield which your hiding behind," I hissed out. Player Killer simply became more and more angry with every word I spoke but I didn't care as it was all the truth about him as a duelist and as a person.

"Shut up! I already told you! I'm not a coward and I never try to hide behind anything!" Player Killer yelled. I had to wonder who he was attempting to convince was it me, the spectators watching us or was it himself as my words were hitting all of the sensitive chords in him which would make him question himself.

"Your strategy has been nothing but hiding and cowering," I stated. The worm once more used the flamethrowers on me however this time around I simply leaned my body back slightly allowing both streams of fire to easily pass by me without taking any damage from them except for the rush of heat that was soon cooled by the night air. "Are you finished? Or will you continue to hide behind your blustering battlements like a big coward? The truth hurts, especially to bullies who can't take facing their own reflection" I taunted in a mocking tone.

"Kylie-san, he's dangerous you've just got to stop stirring him on," Anzu called out to me. Fortunately Other Yugi prevented me from saying anything as he told the others what he had said earlier, I was using the Player Killer's psychological warfare against him and that was actually a fair part of any dueling strategy.

"I will burn you to a cinder!" Player Killer declared. I wasn't at all fazed by his threats as they just proved that he was too much of a coward to face me one on one like a true duelist would.

"That would must prove you're a coward, if you're not afraid then, why don't you just stop hiding and play this game with honour or I will tear apart you fearsome façade and expose the real you to everyone here, once and for all," I shot back. Player Killer declared that I was simply bluffing once again. "There's only one way to know that, play out this game. After all we'll know in two turns or are you too afraid to keep going," I responded to him.

 _"I fear no duelist! I will crush your spirit and wipe out your Life Points!" Player Killer declared. Since it was my turn, I drew a card from my deck and looked over my options before finally finding a way to bring that castle crumbling down and end this duel, but for now I think I'll let the worm sweat for a little longer, after all I did promise two turns._

 _"My card is Lynx in attack mode," I called out. I played the card and the feline creature was projected onto the field, it was medium in size with a deep black coat that had yellow stripes running down its' body, it's ears stood up and were tapered to a point with its' tail swinging lightly behind it as its' electric blue eyes locked onto the worm's monsters._

 _ **Lynx – Attribute: Light, Type: Beast/Thunder, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2100**_

 _"Idiot! Do you think that with its' attack power you can destroy my fortress?" Player Killer questioned. However I had no intentions of attacking the worm's monsters, no I simply had to wait one more turn and then I could bring the Player Killer crashing down and win this duel thus getting Mai's star chips back._

 _"My turn is over and you worm, are finished," I stated. Everyone seemed confused as to why I had done practically nothing on my turn even Player Killer seemed to be confused but he wasn't about to question me and instead drew another card from his deck which I suspected he would use to further defend his monsters and cower behind them like the bully he was._

 _"My turn, my card is Metal Guardian. I put him in defence mode to protect my monster army and he receives a field source power up," Player Killer bragged. Neither myself or the others could get even a word in before the Player Killer continued on his rant. "This is perfect! My monsters are now one hundred percent protected against any attack," Player Killer revealed._

 _ **Metal Guardian – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 5, ATK/1150, DEF/2150**_

 _ **Metal Guardian – ATK/1150 – ATK/1495, DEF/2150 – DEF/2795**_

 _"Once more you're cowering," I spoke my mind. Player Killer told me to be quiet and once more called me a bitch, this time around however I wouldn't let his insulting words pass by me as I looked him dead in the eye. "Your strategy is nothing_ _ **but**_ _putting up defences, you're simply showing how weak you truly are," I continued on with my words._

 _"Silence! In the next turn the Swords of Light will be extinguished and I'll hit you with everything at once," Player Killer declared. I restrained a laugh at what he said as he had yet to realise that he had wasted the last chance he had to have any hope of defeating him but when my turn came it would become very clear._

 _"It's too late since you've already come deep into my trap. By making your defences stronger you simply locked yourself tighter into defeat," I claimed. The worm believed that all I was saying was simply talk and that I had nothing to back it up. "The time for talk is over and that, you coward, was your last turn," I responded._

 _With that out of the way I made my finishing move by summoning out Sagittarius in attack mode, the centaur looking creature appeared with its' horse half taking the appearance of a grey stallion whilst its' human half was a muscled man with curled brown hair and a beard with piercing blue eyes and on his back was a quiver of arrows for the bow in his hand._

 _ **Sagittarius – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/2100, DEF/2000**_

 _"Thanks to my Sagittarius' Special Effect, all I must do is sacrifice one of the other monsters on my field and with his deadly arrows, Sagittarius can destroy any monster on your field. Since its' a Special Effect nothing you have out can block it," I revealed. Player Killer seemed utterly terrified whilst the others chattered excitedly however soon the worm overcame his fear and glared at me._

 _"Go ahead Kylie attack which ever monster you please, my other beast will simply destroy you next turn!" Player Killer roared. I narrowed my eyes at the fact that it seemed this coward hadn't heard me earlier so I would just have to tell him again that this was all over for him._

 _"Didn't you hear me?! There is no next turn and the monster I'll be attacking is your Castle of Concealing Darkness and I'll sacrifice my Aquarius to do so!" I exclaimed. Upon this declaration, Aquarius was surrounded in blue light and then morphed into a small orb that floated over to Sagittarius who held out an arrow with the orb entering into the tip causing it to glow. "Now Sagittarius strike with your Piercing Arrow!" I called out._

 _Sagittarius readied the arrow and it began to hum with a faint tune as light encompassed its' form then it was released and the arrow soared straight into the Castle of Concealing Darkness and a loud explosion occurred upon impact thus shrouding everything in dust so all of us waited patiently for the dust to settle to see if my assault on the Castle had worked._

 _The dust finally settled and the Castle was still standing but a crack appeared in the black circle at its' centre and then the crack widened causing the ring that encompassed the Castle to fall away which sent the Player Killer into a full blown laughter as Anzu stated the visually obvious that the Castle had survived my assault._

 _"Fool, for all your threats my Castle is unharmed. Your worthless attempt simply knocked its' floatation ring off and now that your attack has failed, I'll eliminate you once and for all," Player Killer boasted. It seemed that he hadn't quite caught on to what he just said so it would seem that I would have to enlighten him on this matter._

 _"It's been five turns and I'm still standing Kylie, my monsters are still contained and protected in the Chaos Shield. When this turn is over the paralysing effects of your Sealing Swords of Light will vanish then on my turn I'll attack you with all of my monsters and wipe you out forever," Player Killer commented. I wasn't scared however as the worm had already been defeated he simply didn't know it yet._

 _"There is no next turn for you since this duel is already over. Don't you find it odd that a castle which has lost its'_ _ **floatation**_ _ring is still_ _ **floating**_ _?" I spoke up emphasising certain words. Player Killer seemed confused to this so I would have to explain everything to him. "The Sealing Swords of Light locked everything into play including your castle making them the only thing holding up your castle as such when this turn ends they'll vanish and your Castle will come crashing down," I explained. Player Killer seemed to be having a hard time believing this and it seemed the others were as well._

 _"My turn is over," I spoke. As I did I held out my hand with my thumb pointing up and as I finished I switched it to a downwards position, the Swords vanished and the castle slowly slid down the wall of Chaos Shield. The worm desperately tried to get his monsters to escape but Chaos Shield prevented them from doing so and thus they were crushed and as a result with the Player Killer losing his remaining Life Points, thus ending this duel._

 _ **Player Killer – LP: 494 – LP: 0**_

 _Everyone began to cheer and celebrate with Katherine telling the others she was right, Mai being amazed and the other spectators being impressed over my victory, I smiled at my new friends however it seemed that the Player Killer was not about to let this loss go so easily and claimed he would still eliminate me._

 _The worm swung his fist down so hard that he smashed the controls for his flamethrowers and this caused them to go wildly out of control with some appearing behind me and then to make things worse two of them appeared out of the opposing podium pointed right at me, since my ankles were still cuffed in I couldn't jump off the podium to avoid them and so I squeezed my eyes shut and simply raised my arms to protect myself as he fired them at me._

 _I felt warm but not like I was being burnt instead it was almost like a comforting warmth, I then felt an arm encircle around my waist which pushed me into a hard surface and so I finally opened my eyes, I looked up to see that Other Yugi had appeared and wrapped his arm around me as his Millennium Puzzle glowed with an eye symbol on his forehead._

 _"You survived? How can this be? It's impossible" I heard Player Killer question in a fearful voice. I turned back to look at him although Other Yugi didn't let me take so much as a single step away from him so I simply leant against him as I looked at the worm but I did notice Other Yugi's eyes were narrowed in anger._

 _"My Millennium Puzzle protected me and Kylie from your cowardly assault but nothing will protect you from Oblivion!" Other Yugi declared. He then stretched out his free arm and a rush of energy swept over the duel arena as Player Killer froze and then collapsed with the flames soon subsiding after that, however I had to wonder exactly what Other Yugi had done._

 _Once I was free from the shackles around my ankles, I headed over to Player Killer's podium and retrieved Mai's star chips whilst the others congratulated Other Yugi on protecting everyone from harm, I walked over to Mai and offered her the star chips she had lost however she was being rather stubborn about not taking them back._

 _Jounouchi then stepped in and eyed the star chips but I wasn't sure what to do so I let him take them which got Mai really mad at him and she tried to take them back but Jounouchi held them above his head causing her to reach up but then Jounouchi gave them back to her in the form of a high-five surprising the blonde woman._

 _"If your pride won't let you fight with the star chips then just throw them in the ocean. That's your choice to make… but if it was me I wouldn't, not the star chips or the dream," Jounouchi spoke. I was rather surprised by the deep and meaningful words that had come out on one of the most bone-headed individuals that I had ever met but it really shows that one cannot judge a book by its' cover._

 _We then began to walk away but Mai called out to me and so I stopped and turned around to face her with Other Yugi stopping beside me as well, Mai looked unsure about how to phrase her words so I waited until she was ready and then she looked at me._

 _"I'll borrow these star chips. As I'm in debt… I don't have the right to fight with you. But when I get that right, when that happens… I'll challenge you Kylie-san, the same to you Yugi. Fair and square," Mai spoke._

 _"I'm sure we're both looking forward to it," I responded. Other Yugi nodded his head in agreement and so we walked off to catch up to the others although just before we got into the forest, I lowered my head and reached out catching the edge of Other Yugi's coat causing him to stop and I felt his ruby eyes on me._

 _"Whoever you are, thank you for saving me," I said shyly, which was a new experience for me. I felt a hand appear under my chin and it moved my head upwards thus causing me to look at Other Yugi allowing me to see that he was actually smiling._

 _"I don't let my friends get hurt Kylie and besides we have a promise, remember," Other Yugi commented. I smiled as I did indeed remember the promise that we had made earlier this day on the island and soon it would be time for us to face off._


	13. Chapter 13

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me, also the Shadow Realm is still a thing such as being the source of the Millennium Items' powers but in a Shadow/Dark Game PEOPLE DO STILL DIE… just letting everyone know for this chapter.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 13: - Blue-Eyes VS. Red-Eyes

After Kylie's ferocious duel with that Player Killer, that I'm pretty sure stopped my heart a few times, we returned to the clearing we were resting in and whilst Anzu, Jounouchi and Honda were happily asleep, myself, Bakura, Kylie and Yugi were all sat in a circle.

"What's wrong Bakura-kun?" Yugi asked. The white haired boy had been rather quiet and looking extremely contemplative about something, in response to the young boy's question Bakura held up his Millennium Ring up so that we could all get a better look at it seeing that the object was actually glowing.

"Look at this," Bakura responded. The glowing was isolated to a single spike on the right edge of the ring when viewed from the point of view of wearing the object, to make things even more creepy that solitary spike appeared to be being tugged firmly in a single direction. "One of the needles of the Millennium Ring is pointing in the direction of Pegasus' castle," Bakura acknowledged.

"I was kind of hoping that we were all hallucinating because I'm pretty sure that me and Katherine are seeing it as well," Kylie spoke up. I nodded my head to confirm that I was indeed seeing the same thing and so we all looked in the direction the Millennium Ring was pointing and found that it was indeed locked firmly on Pegasus' castle confusing me immensely.

"Pegasus' castle? Why would it do that?" I wondered aloud. Bakura went on to explain that the day he had transferred into Yugi's high school the Millennium Ring had done the exact same thing, the Ring had pointed directly at Yugi's Millennium Puzzle but Bakura wondered why the Ring was doing it to Pegasus' castle.

"Then the Millennium Ring is pointing to the Millennium Eye that Pegasus owned? Maybe the Millennium Ring can locate other Millennium Items," Yugi theorised. I was quite surprised by this as I had never seen Pegasus wielding such a thing although now that I thought about it he always kept his left eye covered with his silver hair preventing anyone from seeing it but I had always thought it was an injury.

"What exactly are the Millennium Items? Where did they come from? Right now I don't know anything," Bakura wondered. The three of us had to agree with Bakura on that fact but then he looked at me. "Now that I think about it this happened earlier in the tournament I was wondering around and then the Ring started pointing which led me straight to a duel you were participating in Katherine," Bakura explained. I tired really hard to keep calm and not move an inch although I did see Kylie shooting me a worried look but she kept a calm face so as not to give anything away.

"Maybe it was the castle again," I suggested. Bakura nodded however Yugi seemed to be thinking about something pretty hard so Kylie prompted Yugi to speak.

"When we went to the… you call it the Shadow Realm, it seemed like you two had previous experience with it," Yugi commented. I know he considered it an innocent question but I couldn't suppress the involuntary flinch I gave off, Kylie placed her hand on my shoulder and then looked at Yugi.

"You'd be right Yugi. Me and Katherine have run across a few psychos that have dragged us to that world, I think any kind of magic might be able to tap into that world but I can't be sure. The only things I do know are that when you go to that place, the Shadow Realm is a term we coined for it, a duel become a Shadow Game or Dark Game as you call it, with the duelists' lives and souls on the line and these Shadow Games inflict real damage so even if you win you won't come out unharmed," Kylie told them our knowledge.

After that rather depressing conversation we all decided to try and get some sleep however my mind was still whirling with all the new information and I couldn't help but raised my right hand so that it hung in front of me allowing the moonlight to glint off of the metal ever so faintly.

'Ever since that day all those years ago, dueling has never been the same. But it never got as warped as this, what is the mystery of the Millennium Items and why are so many coming out now.' I thought as I gazed at my right hand. However my train of thought was cut off by a whirling sound and so I sat up with Kylie soon joining me as we looked in its' direction seeing something flying with a bright light beaming out of it, everyone else then woke up as well with Jounouchi complaining and Anzu asking what twice.

"It's a helicopter," Kylie responded. Her voice held a thousand questions so she immediately got to her feet and walked over to it with all of us gathering behind her as we waited for the person inside to come out and low and behold the person who had been rude enough to interrupt our sleep was none other than Seto Kaiba dressed in a button up blue shirt, dark smart pants and shoes with a dark blue long coat over it.

I could tell from the way he looked that Seto definitely knew about Mokuba's predicament and was clearly on the mission of saving him, his face was stern and unyielding whilst I noticed that he held a suitcase in his left hand which most likely contained his spare cards.

"It's been a while… Yugi. Kylie, Katherine it's good to see you again," Seto greeted. Kylie and Yugi walked forward with Kylie holding out Seto's deck to him which he took and I swear the slightest glint of happiness jumped into his eyes upon having the Blue-Eyes White Dragons returned to him although the moment he pocketed the deck, his eyes returned to the frozen shade I was much more accustomed to when I wasn't in Mokuba's company.

"For now I'll thank you," Seto finally responded. He then turned and began to head towards the castle although Yugi called out to Seto stating that Seto now understood the Heart of the Cards which caused him to stop in his tracks as Yugi wondered exactly what the cold brunette would say in response to his words.

"Right now I don't have the answer to this, to protect Mokuba and Kaiba Corporation, I will defeat Pegasus by any means necessary," Seto commented his tone firm and unwavering. He had turned to look at us during his sentence and I glanced at Kylie to see her rolling her eyes at Seto's attitude.

"And what, you think we don't want to save Mokuba either? The guards aren't going to let you waltz in Seto and they won't let us in either without those ten star chips," Kylie called out. Seto simply ignored Kylie's comment and turned around beginning to walk towards the castle however Seto's attitude only seemed to anger Jounouchi who ran over to him and seized the front of Seto's shirt.

"Wait a minute Kaiba! All people in Duelist Kingdom have to work hard to win ten star chips in order to fight that same Pegasus! It doesn't matter what your reasons are, I won't forgive you if you pass over us!" Jounouchi ranted. I waited patiently as Kylie lowered her head with a quiet groan as she barely peeked upwards since we both knew what was coming.

In response to what Jounouchi said Seto then practically tossed Jounouchi into the ground so me and Yugi immediately rushed over whilst Kylie kept a grip on Honda to make sure he didn't do anything stupid although Bakura spoke the truth when he called out that Seto's move uncalled for.

"Jounouchi-kun?" Yugi questioned. Fortunately Jounouchi was indeed alright as he easily pushed himself up and turned to glare at Seto however this only got me worried about what the hard-headed blonde would do next especially when Seto questioned if the blonde was actually participating in the tournament.

"Don't underestimate me! I may not look like much but I was the best of eight in a tournament!" Jounouchi challenged. Yeah, this was the single worst move could have made, he wasn't talentless but Seto's level of experience and skill would be too much for him to overcome and fortunately Seto knew it too.

"If even someone like **you** is a duelist here, the island's level must be pretty low," Seto commented. Sadly the insulting words being shot his way only resulted in Jounouchi getting even more angry than he already was, Seto began to walk away once again but the hard-headed blonde stopped him once more although this time with words instead of attempting to use his fists.

"Wait Kaiba! I'm not the same person as before!" Jounouchi challenged. Yugi at the moment lacked the foresight to try and warn Jounouchi against the course of action that the blonde seemed intent on pursuing by talking about the duelists that Jounouchi had successfully defeated in this tournament. "Fight! If you want to battle Pegasus, first you have to face me off!" Jounouchi continued. I was half tempted to smack the fool over the head for being so blind as to the gap in power between the two of them.

"Jounouchi, Seto isn't someone you should be picking a fight with, he's too strong," Kylie warned. The non-duelists also backed her up on this fact however Jounouchi was too stubborn so he simply refused to listen to them and kept pushing for Seto to agree to his challenge.

"Interesting. I will shatter that glass confidence you have, until there's nothing left. Don't worry this battle won't put you star chips at stake," Seto answered. Yugi asked exactly what Seto meant by this as the brunette boy knelt down beside the briefcase. "I will only use Jounouchi's energy to test my new Duel Disc system," Seto explained. All of us were interested to see what the genius boy had come up with in order to face off against Pegasus, I saw Kylie gain an interested sparkle in her eye which always came about when this kind of thing happened, her and Seto had a weird rivalry when it came to technology.

Seto opened up the briefcase he had and pulled out two objects with him soon throwing one at Jounouchi who caught it, I saw that it was a medium sized, red outlined, white based circle with four Duel Monster card size slots touching the edge with each being outlined by a blue edge and one slot was in the middle connecting all four of them, a wire connected the circle to a smaller one with a display screen and a slot for the deck to go in.

"First fix the deck holder to your left arm, set your deck into the deck holder for its' activation. Draw the card from the deck holder and set the card you want to use in the duel on the Duel Disc," Seto explained once Jounouchi and slid the smaller circle onto his wrist.

"This can only go so well," I quietly commented. Kylie groaned out her agreement as she had her head in her hands before she raised it up in order to get a look at the new holographic technology that Seto had invented, Seto then threw the circle out and from it was projected a load of sparkles.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000**

 **Seto – LP: 2000**

Seto continued explaining exactly how the card that was played was read and then projected onto the field using the Solid Vision technology, my head was beginning to hurt when I heard all of the technical terms that were being used as Minotaur became fully visible on the field.

 **Minotaur – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1700, DEF/1000**

The hologram looked too real for everyone to believe it was simply a hologram although Kylie let out an appreciative whistle as the level of technology that was on display here, Yugi commented that Seto's invention had just advanced Duel Monsters to the next level.

"This is a hologram of unprecedented realism. It breathes, it snarls, my new Duel Disc technology even simulates its' odour," Seto boasted. He definitely wasn't kidding about the smell and he did have every right to be bragging after all this was truly a work of marvel.

"Your telling me, that thing really stinks. Good thing he won't be around for much longer," Jounouchi commented. He then proceeded to lay a card in the middle slot and threw out the disc like Seto did causing his Armour Lizard to be projected.

 **Armour Lizard – Attribute: Earth, Type: Reptile, Level: 4, ATK/1500, DEF/1200**

Seto ordered his Minotaur to attack and whilst initially it appeared that Armour Lizard had withstood the attack, it soon turned out to have perished under the power of Minotaur and as a result the card for Armour Lizard was sent flying off of the Duel Disc.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1800**

"When the monster is destroyed pull the Duel Disc back. Until you have played a monster I'll pass this turn," Seto commented. Jounouchi was annoyed by this as the Duel Disc was retracted by the wire and he then played another card into the reader, with that done he threw it out again which summoned forth the Flame Swordsman who he ordered to attack.

 **Flame Swordsman – Attribute: Fire, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

"Don't! The Minotaur is strong against fire-based attacks," Yugi called out. Sadly his warning was too later as Minotaur destroyed Flame Swordsman taking more Life Points away from Jounouchi.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1800 – LP: 1600**

"Flame Swordsman is destroyed. I knew it, you've got to be the worst duelist in existence," Seto taunted. That was pretty harsh of Seto to say, Jounouchi was still learning but he was getting better, Seto then proceeded to use a Fusion Spell card in order to fuse Minotaur and Centaur together which summoned out the Minocentaur.

 **Minocentaur – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 6, ATK/2000, DEF/1700**

"Stop looking down at me like that! Let's go!" Jounouchi shot back in retaliation. He then proceeded to summon out Barbarian Two and so the two monsters on the field proceeded to attack each other with Barbarian Two being destroyed.

 **Barbarian #2 – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1500**

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1600 – LP: 1400**

Due to the sheer strength that the creature possessed and the fact that Jounouchi didn't really know how to use the Duel Disc, Minocentaur cut through another five of Jounouchi's monsters one after the other the second that Jounouchi summoned them onto the field.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1400 – LP: 500**

Jounouchi eventually collapsed to his knees and Seto then started to insult him by demanding to know where Jounouchi's confidence had gone which made me want to go over and hit Seto which wasn't something I wanted to do often, fortunately the others got Jounouchi to get back on his feet and he continued the duel by bring out Red-Eyes and destroying Minocentaur once and for all causing the blonde boy to celebrate his first victory in the match.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

 **Seto – LP: 2000 – LP: 1600**

"Getting excited because you succeeded in getting through one turn, **that's** why I said you're the worst duelist in existence!" Seto bragged. This seriously confused Jounouchi although I had a sinking suspicion that the reason for that was big, blue and white. "I've been holding onto the card your friend got back for me in this deck," Seto responded to Jounouchi's confusion. I knew exactly what the brunette was referring to as Seto then summoned out Blue-Eyes and it destroyed Red-Eyes ending this duel.

 **Blue-Eyes White Dragon – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

 **Joey – LP: 500 – LP: 0**

The others nearly told Seto what Jounouchi was fighting for but the blonde cut them off before they could get the full reason out although Seto did seem to understand and claimed the most important thing was for a duelist to protect that reason… but then he proceeded to deal out insult after insult straight at the blonde.

Once through with insulting Jounouchi, Seto explained that as the creator of Duel Monsters, Pegasus had every card created and knew every rule; Seto believed that even with all of Yugi's skills he couldn't possibly defeat Pegasus since Seto had seen the kind of powers that Pegasus had at the Intercontinental Championship in New York during the spring of last year which I clearly remembered as well.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

 _I swung my legs lighty as I kept my eyes focused on the duel that was currently underway between some hot shot known as Keith Howard aka Bandit Keith and Pegasus J. Crawford, on my left was Kylie who looked bored out of her mind whilst on my right Seto feigned interested but I knew he was as equally bored as my sister._

 _Keith drew a card from his deck and smirked however Pegasus was completely calm and wrote something down on a piece of paper before pointing at a boy that was in the crowd behind us and calling him over._

" _W-what? Don't play around Pegasus!" Keith exclaimed. The boy ran over to where Pegasus was and they swapped places with Pegasus looking Keith dead in the eye with that unnerving confidence he always possessed._

" _I'm not playing around… this young boy will duel you in my place," Pegasus responded. He then handed the boy the piece of paper and walked back over to us where he began discussing the holographic projection system, known as Solid Vision, that Seto had proposed to Pegasus some weeks ago with Kylie and me trying it out._

 _I turned my attention back to the duel and watched as the boy defeated Bandit Keith with ease and when Keith glanced at the paper he read, it turned out Keith's entire strategy was printed on it, I looked at Kylie who had a curious look in her eyes before I turned to Pegasus who wore a mischievous smile, he then went over and declared that the boy known as Tom was the winner._

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

"He used some kind of trick. I don't know if the Duel Disc will be enough to win over this trick," Seto admitted. He closed up his briefcase having put both Duel Discs back inside of it and then stood up to face us, I was worried that something bad was going to happen.

"Pegasus… that power I have seen it. Kaiba-kun, you, this fight you had with Jounouchi was to…," Yugi spoke. The boy was definitely brave, few people had the courage to stand up to Seto the way that this group certainly did, even I was scared stiff of actually talking back to him.

"Yugi… I'm going to Pegasus' place to defeat Pegasus and also to take back what is mine!" Seto responded. He then turned to walk away from us although was stopped when Other Yugi appeared and informed the brunette that the rest of us had something we need to protect and even declared that he would be the one to defeat Pegasus. "Then I'll say it in a different way, I'm going to Pegasus' castle **before** anyone else," Seto reaffirmed. With Seto finally left us behind.


	14. Chapter 14

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy, I had to use the dubbed version as the original couldn't be found**

Chapter 14: - The Arena of Lost Souls

"Are you sure about this?" Katherine asked. It was still in the early hours of the second day of the tournament meaning that it would be every duelists' last chance to collect the necessary star chips, me and Katherine were packing up our stuff at my insistence although Katherine was a little unwilling to leave our new friends behind.

"I need two and you need six. As much as I would enjoy staying with these guys, if we want in to the castle then we need find those star chips as soon as possible and travelling around with them will only limit our possibilities," I responded. Katherine let out an understanding hum and so we returned to our packing and once that was done I pulled out a scrap of paper and left a note for the others to find when they awoke promising to meet at the castle.

The two of us set off into the forest as we started looking around for any signs of a duel arena or any duelists period, there probably wouldn't be many left seeing as other duelists and the eliminators got to them yesterday but those that were left behind would be much stronger since they survived the trials of yesterday.

"Hey Kylie, do you think Jounouchi's going to be ok? Seto did hurt him pretty badly yesterday," Katherine spoke up. I looked down at my little sister to see her eyes sparkling with the worry that came with her naturally kind and gentle soul so I sent the girl a smile to reassure her and ease her mind for the duels ahead.

"Yeah he got beaten down pretty hard but Jounouchi's tough and besides, he's got his sister to worry so I know he'll come around for her sake," I spoke. Katherine nodded a bright smile stretching across her lips, with my sister's spirit settled we immediately got back to looking around for the rest of our star chips.

As we walked I pulled out my notebook and began to sketch in it which caused Katherine to laugh and so I looked down at her curious as to what had caused my sister to start laughing all of a sudden.

"Not even half a day and you're already thinking of ways to improve it," Katherine spoke. I smiled as I turned back to my notebook which was indeed intended to be filled with several ideas on how to improve Seto's Duel Disc, the basic concept was impressive but there were a few modification that I thought would make it better.

Eventually the two of us heard some commotion off in the distance and so we ran towards it where we found a large clearing with multiple duelists milling around and this was perfect for me and Katherine so with a confident smile from me and an excited sparkle in Katherine's eyes the two of us took off to find individuals to duel.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

I blinked owlishly as I stared at my sister who inserted her newly acquired star chips into her duel glove with a smile on her face, once she was done Katherine looked at me and got confused by the expression on my face but I couldn't help but stare at her the way I was doing so.

"Sometimes I don't know how you do it Kathie. You talked that guy into giving up all six of his star chips," I pointed out. Katherine blinked slightly for a moment before smiling lightly and shyly at the fact that I had pointed out one of her strongest skills.

"Don't ask me, maybe I've mum's way with words," Katherine responded. Katherine was right she was as convincing as our mother was so I figured that was where she got it from and with both of us having easily gained the final star chips we needed, we just needed to get to Pegasus' castle before sun down if we wanted to get inside.

"If I remember right there should be a cave in that direction that is a shortcut to the castle," I commented pointing in the direction. The cave might be a shortcut but who knows what kind of things Pegasus put in there, it was well known that Pegasus was a rather eccentric man.

"Better than wandering waiting and getting delayed by challenges. Let's move," Katherine agreed. With that the two of us took off running towards the cave's entrance so that we wouldn't be disturbed by anyone who wanted to challenge us.

We arrived at the cave and swiftly ducked into it, the cave was dank, dark and smelled something rather nasty but we'd have to put up with it for now, we walked down the pathway our eyes slowly adjusting to the lack of lighting and we came across a pair of coffins in the way with a chain nearby.

"Like that doesn't scream trap," I muttered. Katherine let out a nervous laugh and so the two of us immediately bypassed the coffins to keep walking down however shortly after we left a slight scream went up from behind us. "What the? What in Ra's name was that?" I wondered aloud.

"Maybe someone else wandered in," Katherine suggested. The two of us turned and continued on our way hoping to reach the exit of the cave system before it was too late for us to get inside the castle, no matter what Seto said I was going to do everything I could to save Mokuba from Pegasus' clutches.

Another scream, much louder than last time, echoed towards us and when we turned around I heard the beating of feet so we waited for whoever was running to show themselves and low and behold it was Yugi, Honda and Anzu who slid to a stop on the ground just past Katherine who blinked owlishly for a moment, another noise echoed from the direction they came in and so I turned to see Bakura running towards us with a skeleton on his back.

"Bakura duck!" I yelled. As Bakura closed into me I balled up my left hand and when Bakura was close enough he did indeed duck and I threw my fist into the skeleton on him knocking it right off and causing Bakura to slump down appearing to be completely exhausted from the panic he must've felt.

"No more picking up hitchhikers," Honda wheezed out. Katherine had retrieved a bottle of water was the duffle bag and passed it out to everyone who took a drink and fortunately calmed down so that they could look at us and finally seemed to realise we were there.

"Fancy meeting you here," I quipped. Yugi immediately jumped to his feet and the look of panic that graced his face had me worried in that instant and Katherine seemed extremely concerned as to why Yugi looked so completely terrified.

"Jounouchi's gone missing and he dropped his wallet with a picture of his sister inside near this cave so we think he was dragged down here," Yugi explained. Now I understood why he was worried, Jounouchi and Yugi appeared to be the best of friends so Jounouchi's mysterious disappearance must have him deeply worried.

"Sorry Yugi, we haven't seen him, but he could be further in," I responded. Yugi nodded and so the other three soon stood up as we prepared to get going however when we walked further down I stopped as I pressed my teeth against my lips. "We've got a problem," I spoke up.

Everyone looked around me and saw the problem I was talking about, there were two pathways that could be followed with Anzu sarcastically calling them both inviting although Honda soon reminded her of exactly what the situation was and so we decided to split into groups of three and each head down a different pathway in order to find Jounouchi.

"Huh, my foot?" Bakura said. I looked at him and noticed that one of Bakura's feet was placed lower than the other implying that he had stood on some kind of switch; then a strange rumbling kind of sound echoed from behind us and it was slowly getting louder as it came closer to where the lot of us currently where, eventually the sound turned out to be **A** **BOULDER**!

"This way!" I yelled pointing down the left passage. All of us immediately bolted down it with the boulder somehow following us although this was due to the fact that we were currently running downhill, as we ran Bakura kept apologising for unleashing this danger on us however he eventually tripped and before any of us could stop to reach him the boulder ran right over him.

We continued running but eventually came upon a dead end and completely out of breath; so Honda turned and insisted that he would fight against the boulder despite the fact that all of us would most likely be crushed, Honda threw a punch and surprisingly enough the boulder… popped? Thus revealing it was actually a balloon and inside of it was a speaker wired for sound letting us realise is was a trick.

"Just for that trick, when I find Pegasus I'm going to kill him!" I seethed. I could practically feel the steam rising off of my head in anger, the only good thing about this revelation is that it meant Bakura wasn't actually dead like all of us had probably thought.

"We didn't take a single turn and there weren't any that I saw as we ran so that must means the path leading right is where Jounouchi must have been taken," Katherine realised. For Katherine to have noticed that whilst we were running for our lives was pretty impressive and so once Bakura had recovered from the shock of the balloon rolling over him, all of us got moving back so that we could get to Jounouchi and whoever kidnapped him.

We rushed down the right path in order to get to Jounouchi in time however when we did find him, Jounouchi was in the middle of a duel against someone who was using Zombie type monsters so that and his freakish face caused Katherine to scream and hide behind me but this attracted everyone's attention to us

I scanned the arena to see that Jounouchi was definitely on the losing end of this duel since he had no monsters out whilst his opponent had four monsters in play with a Call of the Living Dead Trap card which revived non-Zombie monsters as Zombies making it so they couldn't be destroyed and they only got stronger each time they were attacked, also with Pumpking out the other Zombie types got stronger with each passing turn and the Graveyard field gave the Zombies a Field Power Bonus.

 **Ghost Kotsuzuka – LP: 1305**

 **Jounouchi – LP: 630**

 **Ghost King Pumpking – Attribute: Dark, Type: Zombie, Level: 6, ATK/1950, DEF/2600**

 **Armoured Warrior Zombie – Attribute: Dark, Type: Zombie, Level: ?, ATK/2550, DEF/0**

 **Murder Circus Zombie – Attribute: Dark, Type: Zombie, Level: ?, ATK/2295, DEF/0**

 **Dragon Zombie – Attribute: Dark, Type: Zombie, Level: ?, ATK/2720, DEF/0**

"Guys you're all here?" Jounouchi asked. I wasn't surprised by his question after all I hadn't been expecting to run into them either but oh well, it seemed fate wanted us to keep bumping into each other in this tournament so I might as well go with it, Yugi openly wondered exactly what kind of duel arena it was since it looked rather mangled.

"Are you crazy? Why did you accept to duel in a place like this?" Honda asked. Jounouchi explained that he hadn't accepted it willingly and it was more like he had been forced to take part in this duel however two men soon appeared in front of us, the one on the left had wild red hair with glasses over his eyes and he wore a simple shirt and jeans, the one on the right had spiked up black hair, a striped shirt with an open t-shirt over it and pants with both of them wearing duel gloves. "This duel's over," Honda stated.

"That's not up to you chum," The red-head spoke. He had an English accent but it was much coarser than the ones I'd heard before, Honda ran forward but something stopped him and this allowed the black-haired man to punch him in the stomach sending Honda down but Jounouchi couldn't come down from the podium otherwise he would forfeit all of his star chips as another individual pointed out.

"The duel is illegal anyway," Anzu shot back. The one who had spoken had been a man that was sitting behind Ghost Kotsuzuka but I couldn't get a good look at him because of the two thugs in the way, Yugi agreed with Anzu's statement.

"Wrong Anzu," The man from beyond Ghost Kotsuzuka spoke up. This man's sentence was structured to hit back at Yugi's words. "When he threw down his star chips, he accepted the duel," The man explained. Honda managed to pull himself up and he threw Jounouchi his wallet which contained a picture of Jounouchi's sister who I now knew was called Shizuka, the man once more spoke up about how Jounouchi would separate with his star chips.

"Hey I've had it up to here with your smart remarks. Spill, who are you anyway?" Jounouchi demanded. It was a damn decent question and I wanted to know who the creep was that had clearly been the orchestrator behind Jounouchi kidnapping and forcing him into this duel.

"Don't you know? They call me Bandit Keith," The man responded. My eyes widened at hearing that name again, the name of the duelist who Pegasus humiliated only a year ago, it was quite a surprise that he was here on the island, since he was defeated he had pretty much vanished from the dueling scene and hadn't even come to defend his title at the Intercontinental Championships earlier this year.

"You're Bandit Keith?" Yugi asked. Yugi then explained to the others exactly who Keith had been which made me realise that the news of the new Intercontinental Champion must not have made its' way to Japan yet, since that was where all of these guys lived.

Jounouchi continued the duel against Kotsuzuka who had been taking strategic advice from Keith and since we weren't going to be interfering the two thugs backed off allowing me to see the former Champion, he still wore the same American flag bandana around his golden hair although sunglasses covered his eyes, he had a red shirt that was covered by a studded leather jacket and a pair of jeans on with boots, silver arm bands were on both arms.

Jounouchi lay a card in face down defence position however the strategy that the blonde had been hoping to use, of wait then strike, was ended when Kotsuzuka revealed that he had drawn the Defence Seal, Spell card and whilst it wouldn't affect the defence monster that was already on the field if Jounouchi tried to play any more cards in defence then this Spell would prevent that for a single turn which was all that Kotsuzuka needed to win against Jounouchi, then Pumpking's effect activated.

 **Armoured Warrior Zombie – ATK/2550 – ATK/2700**

 **Murder Circus Zombie – ATK/2430 – ATK/2565**

 **Dragon Zombie – ATK/2720 – ATK/2880**

Kotsuzuka had his Dragon Zombie attack Jounouchi's monster thus destroying it which made it so that Jounouchi seemed like he was going to give up however all of us encouraged Jounouchi to keep going and he affirmed that he wasn't going to quit with his sister relying on him so much and so he proceeded to summon out Red-Eyes.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

"Red-Eyes? Where'd a dork like that get a card this rare?!" Bandit Keith questioned. It was nice to hear Keith's tone lose the arrogant smugness that it had possessed since he first opened his mouth, in fact despite his loss to Pegasus it seemed like he hadn't lost any of the arrogance that he had the last time I saw him.

"If all my defences are blocked I'll just have to take to the offense. Red-Eyes take out that over grown pumpkin!" Jounouchi ordered. It was a smart move and it seemed Jounouchi's cards knew just the card he needed for this situation although I was worried about what would happen afterwards.

With the power of Jounouchi's Red-Eyes it was able to destroy Pumpking thus preventing Kotsuzuka from being able to power up the rest of his Zombie monsters anymore and since Pumpking was already a Zombie when it was summoned, Call of the Living Dead couldn't bring it back like the others, another bonus was that Kotsuzuka lost some more of his Life Points.

 **Ghost Kotsuzuka – LP: 1305 – LP: 855**

Sadly Jounouchi's victory didn't last long as Kotsuzuka ordered his Dragon Zombie to destroy Red-Eyes which severely depleted Jounouchi's Life Points and sadly this caused Jounouchi to become really depressed as well since it seemed like he was out of moves.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 630 – LP: 150**

"Yugi isn't there some way Jounouchi can beat that little ghoul?" Anzu asked. Yugi couldn't really give an answer and to be honest I don't think there was a way of Jounouchi being able to win this match after all any monster he did summon, even if it was strong enough to beat one, would be destroyed by the others on the next turn if it didn't wipe out Kotsuzuka's Life Points when it attacked.

"Defence! That's it! Jounouchi there is a way, you've got a Spell card in your deck that can turn this whole thing around!" Yugi called out. I had to wonder exactly what Yugi must have thought of, Keith didn't believe in Yugi's words at all but it seemed Jounouchi did and so he drew a card from his deck.

"Grappling Warrior Ultimator in attack mode," Jounouchi called out. This would be the final move of this whole duel, I had noticed that Jounouchi stared at the card he drew for a short while before he began to make his move and I wondered exactly what that card was.

 **Grappling Warrior Ultimator – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 2, ATK/700, DEF/1000**

"And then I add this Spell card called Shield in the Right Hand and Sword in the Left Hand," Jounouchi finished. Katherine let out a cheer before hiding behind me again and I also smiled, since the magic of Shield and Sword caused all monster on the field to swap their offense and defence powers and with zero attack points the Zombies couldn't come back once destroyed.

 **Grappling Warrior Ultimator – ATK/700 – ATK/1000, DEF/1000 – DEF/700**

 **Armoured Warrior Zombie – ATK/2700 – ATK/0, DEF/0 – DEF/2700**

 **Murder Circus Zombie – ATK/2565 – ATK/0, DEF/0 - 2565**

 **Dragon Zombie – ATK/2880 – ATK/0, DEF/0 – 2880**

Jounouchi ordered his Grappling Warrior to attack and the warrior proceeded to destroy Dragon Zombie, with the difference between them Jounouchi won the duel with this causing Bandit Keith to walk off although he passed by Jounouchi as he did.

 **Ghost Kotsuzuka – LP: 855 – LP: 0**

"Bandit Keith maybe next time you'll have the nerve to duel me face to face instead of hiding behind your creepy flunkies," Jounouchi challenged. Keith didn't even have the decency to acknowledge what Jounouchi had said by turning to look at him and only stopped in his tracks.

"Duel you face to face? You're hopeless dweeb. The game of Duel Monsters is all about keeping your opponent off balance, winning the duel's all that matters not how you go about it," Keith commented. He then began to walk off with his flunkies trailing after him. I poked Katherine and she looked out seeing that the Zombies were gone so she stopped hiding behind me.

"He gives Americans a bad name," I commented. Katherine nodded her head in agreement whilst Jounouchi went to pick up the four star chips he had just won making it so that now he only needed two in order to enter Pegasus' castle so we then all started walking to where the exit should hopefully be located.

"Kylie-san, Katherine-chan you two grew up in America right?" Yugi asked. I nodded wondering what the young boy was getting at. "How come you know Japanese so well?" Yugi continued. Ah, the majority of the time we had been talking to the group had been in Japanese so it was no wonder that the boy was curious.

"We're half-Japanese and learned the language since we were little," I explained. Yugi nodded and so we continued onward until we came upon a light at the end of the tunnel and we knew that we had found our way out so we began to run towards it.

However it seemed that Keith was as much a sore loser as the worm was, because as we ran forward something began to move across the exit and before we could reach it the entire opening had be closed off by a giant sphere of rock so we all started pushing against it.

"Are we really trapped in here?" Anzu asked. Her voice showing the strain that the pushing was putting on her body, none of us answered because we really had no idea.


	15. Chapter 15

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 15: - Tag Duel in the Labyrinth

Myself, Bakura and Anzu watched as Jounouchi, Honda, Kylie and Yugi continued struggling against the boulder as they desperately tried to move the lump of hardened earth out of the way however they weren't budging the giant rock one inch and so they finally gave up and turned around to face the three of us with all four of them having sweat dripping from their foreheads.

"I guess we can only look for another exit," Honda suggested. Kylie sighed and pushed herself up, she then turned to face the object and put her hand on the boulder that was barring our way out with her lips being pulled into a thin line, everyone looked at her waiting for whatever Kylie was going to say next.

"Minus the way we got in, another exit could be anywhere on the entire island and we don't exactly have a lot of time to go stumbling around," Kylie pointed out. However before anyone could make another comment, Bakura walked off and so we followed after him coming to a stop at another tunnel, it was then that I noticed Bakura's Millennium Ring was acting up once again.

"Pegasus' castle is most likely this way everyone," Bakura called. Since Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu hadn't heard our discussion last night the three of them were confused as to the importance of this fact and we didn't really have the time to explain it to them at the moment so it was probably best that we get moving before time was up.

"We'll explain later, for now just follow after Bakura," I advised the others. Bakura then began walking down the tunnel and so the rest of us soon followed after him with the faint hope that we might be getting out of these tunnels within our lifetime.

I wasn't sure how much time passed or if we were getting any closer to the exit but I did notice that the rugged surface and carved rock formation of the cave had given way to something that was much more man-made, the surface were a lot smoother and all the bricks making up this passage way were neatly arranged into rows.

Everyone else soon noticed this aspect and then we spotted multiple corridors jutting off from the one that we were currently in, reminding me of a maze, yet before we could make any decisions about which way to go Bakura took off running claiming his Millennium Ring was pulling him in a specific direction and so we soon gave chase so as to not lose him.

"Well tell it to pull slower," Jounouchi suggested. Given that it was a magic item originating in Ancient Egypt that allowed a psychotic evil spirit to possess the poor boy wearing it and seemed to be capable of homing in on other magical artefacts, the Ring actually being sentient wasn't the most unbelievable thing I had ever heard.

Our group ran through the maze taking twists and turns at a fast pace which made it slightly dizzying, with the rest of us barely being able to keep up with the white haired boy guiding us although eventually Bakura came to a sudden grinding halt and so we all gathered around him to see into the room that he stopped in front of, as we were curious to why he had stopped.

The room had a Chinese-esque design with two kanji written characters reappearing throughout the room with one in blue and the other in green with these two symbols also on doors at the opposite end of the room, although the most glaringly obvious feature in the room was the large duel arena that had four podiums available.

"You have entered," A masculine voice sounded yet I didn't see anyone in the room.

"Sacred ground," A second yet much deeper masculine voice continued on from the first.

"Where only duelists," The first voice spoke.

"Can be found," The second voice finished.

"Yeah well we're duelists," Jounouchi responded. I was amazed that someone could still talk in this strange situation since it seemed that everyone else was utterly baffled by what was going on.

"Before you pass," The first voice started.

"Across this chamber," The second voice continued. Then the owners of the voices appeared, they were both Chinese men with bald heads and dressed in a long dress like piece of clothing with black clothing around the arms and legs implying something underneath, the dresses were different with one in orange and one in green.

These two individuals jumped across the room doing martial arts moves and even seemed to be fighting each other at one point which left all of us completely lost and confused as to exactly what was going on here.

"You must agree," The first voice which belong to the man in orange spoke. The two had jumped back and were spinning in the air as they spoke.

"To face the danger," The second voice came from the one in green as the words were spoken.

"So let the contestant," Orange spoke as they landed.

"Now begin," Green continued.

"Notify," Orange took over.

"Your next of kin," Green spoke up.

"Your trapped," Orange continued. At that moment a banging sound echoed like something being closed and this didn't sit well with any of us since we all stiffened at the sound.

"And the doors are all locked," Green said. Kylie immediately turned around and by the growl she let out we were indeed trapped in here with these weirdos.

"You face the Labyrinth Brothers," The finished in unison. I think all of us were completely confused by this, not even me and Kylie finished each other's sentences and we were more close than any other pair of siblings I had ever met, then I spotted the filled Duel Gloves that both of them wore, implying they might be player killers.

"My, oh my. It sure is rare for rats to wander into our maze," Orange spoke up. I saw Kylie's eyebrow twitch at the sight of their Duel Gloves and I wasn't surprised given that I was still coming to grips with how close Kylie came to actually dying if Other Yugi hadn't saved her during the last player killer fiasco.

"Ah, but they are far from lost," Green finished. The Labyrinth Brothers went on to demand if we could determine the 'correct path'… whatever the hell that meant; they then went ahead and formally challenged us to a duel in order to get an answer out of them, then the threat came that if we ran or lost we'd stay trapped down here for ever.

"In other words, we can't leave if we can't win, right?" Anzu stated. The way the duel arena was styled and the fact that there were two opponents told me that they wouldn't accept only one duelist as their opponent.

"By the way this will be a two on two duel," Orange spoke. The kanji on his forehead matched the blue symbol we kept seeing around the room and I realised that it stood for mei.

"Two duelists please step forward," Green requested. The kanji on his forehead matched the green symbol and I realised it stood for kyū, the others were confused about this since they had never heard of a tag team duel before due to the fact that this style of duel was rarely employed in any tournaments, then Other Yugi came out.

"It seems we have no choice but to accept the match Jounouchi-kun," Other Yugi agreed. The four duelists began to walk towards the arena to take up their positions however before Yugi and Jounouchi could step onto the blue podiums, Kylie darted forward.

"Hold on Yugi!" Kylie called out. Both Jounouchi and Other Yugi stopped and they turned to look at her with Other Yugi having an inquisitive look in his eyes. "Do you and Jounouchi have any experience dueling together?" Kylie asked. It was completely valid and I knew exactly where my sister was going with this.

"No. I can already guess what you're going to say Kylie, you and Katherine have that experience but me and Jounouchi need to win our star chips since the both of you already have all ten. Thank you for your concern," Other Yugi spoke. I looked at my sister waiting for her to give some argument back but instead her shoulders slumped and she walked back over to us.

I couldn't help but stare at my sister unable to believe she had given up on an argument that easily which wasn't against me, Kylie was tenacious when it came to something akin to this, in fact I had seen her argue for hours on end against others yet it was quite clear to me now that Other Yugi must have been something special to have made my sister back down so easily.

After being welcomed to the Labyrinth Field by the Labyrinth Brothers which ended up seriously confusing Jounouchi, they wagered six star chips which would give the boys the amount they needed to win this match and get inside the castle, The kyū brother started the duel by summoning out the Labyrinth Wall which was a curious choice.

 **Labyrinth Wall – Attribute: Earth, Type: Rock, Level: 5, ATK/0, DEF/3000**

We soon found out why Green had summoned it when the entire dueling arena changed shape to take on the appearance of a labyrinth which seriously confused the rest of us and it seemed to annoy Kylie the most so she stepped forward again.

"Hey!" Kylie yelled. This drew everyone's attention to her but her flaming green eyes simply focused on the Labyrinth Brothers who looked slightly terrified. "These two don't know the rules of a Tag Team Duel much less how to play on this Labyrinth Field, so show some common courtesy and tell them!" Kylie yelled. Once she had finished Kylie turned on her heel and walked back over to us although the other three took a step away whilst a sweat drop appeared on my head.

"Each player has two thousand Life Points. However if any player loses all of their Life Points then his tag team loses," Green began the explanations. Jounouchi and Other Yugi would need to be extra careful when protecting their Life Points in this match.

"You are also permitted to use your teammate's cards on your turn. Now then onto the Labyrinth Field rules, here each Duel Monster will move like a chess piece on the board. When that card is summoned, it can move in accordance to its' star level, the monsters battle when they meet up on the board," Orange finished explaining.

Green went on to remind us of the choice that we would have to make once this duel was over and of the consequences of choosing the wrong door however because of the fact that our lives would be put in danger if we ended up choosing the wrong door, this threat did not sit well with Jounouchi.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's dirty! We're betting our lives on this here! Can you at least give us a hint?" Jounouchi ranted. It was a completely fair and accurate point that he made after all proving themselves in a duel should have been the only thing needed to get us out.

'There is no way they're going to make this easy for us, even with a hint.' I though. However I perked up when I heard that the brothers were going to give us a clue about how to get out of this unbearable mess since it might be the first key we needed in order to find this correct door.

"Then from here on out, one of us will be telling the truth," Orange began.

"And one will tell nothing but lies," Green finished. I furrowed my eyebrows at this, it sounded like a riddle I had once heard from my father but there was one slight difference to that riddle and this current predicament making any comparison worthless since that difference changed the whole riddle.

"Hey, that wasn't a lie just now, right?" Other Yugi questioned. Green insisted that it was nothing but the complete truth but then Orange went on to claim that his door was the one that would have lead us to freedom but Green insisted that it was actually his door that was the true exit, the strange thing was that Jounouchi hadn't said a single word since they told the truth and lies thing.

'Wait a second… now I remember the riddle. Whilst on a journey a young boy comes upon a fork in the road, unfortunately the fork in the road leads to one of two villages, one road leads to the home of those that speak only the truth whilst the other one leads to those that are doomed to tell only lies. At the crossroad a villager is present but his village of origin is unknown so what question should the boy ask in order to reach his destination of the truth speaking village. The answer is simple, take me to your village, one of truth would take him to the truth village whilst one of lies would also be forced to take him to the truth village since it is a lie.' I thought.

"Alright then, I have a question for you two," Jounouchi spoke up. I looked at the blonde boy wondering what he might be up to, the Labyrinth Brothers agreed to answer one question from each of their opponents. "Ok, then. I'll have you tell us which of yours is the real exit? Which of you is protecting the true exit?" Jounouchi asked.

It was apparent that he must have heard the riddle I had or at least at similar one thus he believed that he had managed to figure out the whole scenario, in response to the question Orange and Green both pointed to the door that Green guarded however I didn't believe for a minute that this was the right path due to the earlier statement they had made about one lying and one speaking the truth.

Neither of them could have said such a thing as the liar couldn't admit to lying and neither could he have claimed the truthful part since that was also speaking the truth and it seemed that Other Yugi had caught on to this as well since he stated that we couldn't trust Green or Orange and the riddle was most likely a distraction so they swiftly got back to the duel at hand.

"Let's continue this game, don't be swindled by their words, we'll eventually find out which of the doors is the real exit. I summon out the card Ruiz in attack mode," Other Yugi declared. The small rodent appeared outside of the maze, the brothers encouraged Other Yugi to continue on with his move by advancing the little creature.

 **Ruiz – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1200, DEF/1500**

Other Yugi had his Ruiz advance four paces into the Labyrinth however Orange swiftly countered this move by using Fusion in order to fuse the Shadow Ghoul with Labyrinth Wall thus bringing out the Wall Shadow.

 **Wall Shadow – Attribute: Dark, Type: Warrior, Level 7, ATK/1600, DEF/3000**

Wall Shadow darted across the walls of the Labyrinth and it appeared slightly above Ruiz which it proceeded to destroy with its' viciously sharp claws, once that was done Wall Shadow proceeded to sink back into the wall of the Labyrinth preventing them from attacking it.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1600**

"Hey that's cheating, damnit! That's not legal!" Jounouchi protested. However Orange and Green simply claimed that it was very much a legal move because the Wall Shadow was technically the wall itself, due to this fact that meant that the beast could appear anywhere on the board and the boys couldn't strike back with the Labyrinth Brothers bragging about this.

"Alright, it's my turn, I summon Axe Raider in attack mode and I set one more card face down. I can't attack what I can't see therefore I won't move this turn. This way I'm safe from your wall jumping freak and you can't attack, right?" Jounouchi declared. It was a smart move on Jounouchi's part and it really showed how much the blonde had grown as a duelist in such a short time since his first and admittedly rather clumsy duel against Mai, he was learning that he needed to think strategically as well as instinctually.

 **Axe Raider – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1700, DEF/1150**

"It's my turn! First I set a card face down, this is the trap Land Mine Spider. I then summon Demonic Labyrinth Tank and move it ahead by seven paces," Green spoke.

 **Demonic Labyrinth Tank – Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2400**

"My turn! I summon Elf Swordsman in attack mode. Move ahead four paces into the labyrinth," Other Yugi commanded. This move seemed rather odd to me given that the Wall Shadow was two hundred points stronger than Elf Swordsman although it could possibly have something to do with the face down card that Jounouchi played as trusting in your partner was the most basic and critical part of any tag team game.

 **Elf Swordsman – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

"Fool, my turn! Wall Shadow, your target is the Elf Swordsman," Orange commanded. We watched as the dark splotch raced across the wall of the labyrinth and then the creature emerged above the elven warrior prepared to strike it down as the mei brother smirked wickedly believing he would be able to damage Other Yugi's Life Points again.

However instead of destroying Elf Swordsman something wrapped around Wall Shadow preventing it from attacking which turned out to be Jounouchi's Trap card known as Chain Attached Boomerang and thanks to its' effect it raised Elf Swordsman's attack power by five hundred points making it stronger than Wall Shadow thus allowing for the monster to be destroyed and the drop in Life Point at least revealed the name of Orange as Para.

 **Elf Swordsman – ATK/1400 – ATK/1900**

 **Para – LP: 2000 – LP: 1700**

"The duel has all but started!" Para complained.

"Correct, let the game continue," Green responded. With Para's turn over the power up bonus that Elf Swordsman had received from Chain Attached Boomerang was lost.

 **Elf Swordsman – ATK/1900 – ATK/1400**

"We'll show you that we're the greatest tag team out there! Let's go Yugi!" Jounouchi declared. Other Yugi agreed with the words that his friend had spoken and I noticed that the Labyrinth Brothers weren't exactly impressed with the fact that Jounouchi and Other Yugi had managed to pull one over on them.


	16. Chapter 16

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 16: - Fusion of Three Gods! Gate Guardian!

My eyes swept over the duel as I pressed my teeth against my lips since my thoughts were drifting to Mokuba and the predicament he could be in right now whilst we were stuck down here unable to escape and try to find a way to save him from any danger.

But more than that I was worried about this whole door choosing thing that those Labyrinth Brothers had thrown at us, trying to wrap my head around all of this was just starting to give me a migraine so the only thing I could do was wait for Other Yugi and Jounouchi to win this duel and hope that someone had figured out the door thing otherwise I might just lose my mind.

Katherine looked like she was trying to figure out this puzzle even now which was no surprise, when it came to this kind of stuff my sister was always intent on solving it no matter how long it took and eventually she would find the answer but I didn't know if she would be able to figure out whatever these annoying brothers were up to with how confusing they made everything.

To make things worse if that damned door problem didn't drive me crazy, then I knew those brothers would, that was simply how annoying they were and I was seriously tempted to go over there and punch the both of them just so they would shut up with the damn riddles; Jounouchi was calmly looking over the cards in his hand clearly trying to plan out his next move.

"Okay then! I summon the Flame Swordsman in attack mode! I'll move him four spaces forward, I'll also move the Axe Raider four spaces putting him on the same space as Elf Swordsman," Jounouchi explained. Grouping the monsters together was probably a smart move given that it would prevent any monster from sneaking up to ambush them.

 **Flame Swordsman – Attribute: Fire, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

The two monsters now gathered on the same spot as Elf Swordsman and even though the elven warrior had lost the power-up and Chain Attached Boomerang's Trap effect was gone it still gave the power-up bonus to Axe Raider making it much stronger giving Jounouchi a slight edge.

 **Axe Raider – ATK/1700 – ATK/2200**

"My turn! Advance Demonic Labyrinth Tank," Green commanded. The giant machine rumbled forward closing in on the trio of monsters and with it high attack power it would be difficult for them to be able to destroy the futuristic machine and to make things worse there was that Land Mine Spider that Green had planted early hiding away somewhere on the field, the two of them would have to be careful as they continued to make their moves during this duel.

"My turn! I summon the Black Magician in attack mode. I'll move him six spaces in front of the Elf Swordsman," Other Yugi announced. To agree with the move Black Magician jumped over all of the monsters and landed with ease only a space in front of them, that spellcaster always seemed to be able to save Other Yugi whenever he was in a tight spot which meant that he was probably going to be able to perform the same magic tricks in this duel to save his treasured master.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

The two boys were definitely going to need all their monsters to be together if they wanted to escape from the dangers that were hidden within the Labyrinth and with Black Magician at the frontline, he would be able to destroy Labyrinth Tank by the time it got any closer to their consolidated forces but if they stayed together as a team then they'd be able to succeed in this duel.

However it seemed like Para had a trick up his sleeve as the moment he drew a card from his deck a wicked grin split across his face as he stared at it which didn't sit well with me since it meant he had probably drawn something that would cause problems for the boys.

"My turn! I play this card," Para declared as he played it. The Labyrinth Field began to shake and then from the groves that pitted the field they were playing on more walls began to pop out of the ground however some walls also disappeared back into the ground and this resulted in the entire structure changing appearance.

"Damn it! They split our party up!" Jounouchi exclaimed. A wall had risen up between the four monsters splitting them into two groups consisting of Black Magician and Elf Swordsman in one with Axe Raider and Flame Swordsman in the other, we were all shocked by what had happened and even the monsters seemed surprised by this unexpected change.

It was common knowledge that tag teams were only as strong as their weakest link and that meant that the Labyrinth Brothers would be targeting Jounouchi, but the aforementioned blonde duelist was heavily focused on the fact that the strategy the two boys had worked so hard on had been disrupted with one card.

"Calm down Jounouchi-kun," Other Yugi called out. This calmed the blonde haired boy down and so he made his move by having both Axe Raider and Flame Swordsman advance in order to meet up with Other Yugi's monsters, however this resulted in Axe Raider stepping on a Trap that the brothers had set which unleashed the Land Mine Spider, Jirai Gumo.

The Trap that had been used to attack Jounouchi's unknowing monsters was a rather deadly Trap destroyed since before any destruction it lowered the attack power to the original level if a monster has an equip card attached to it and once the monster that was caught, the Trap would still manage to take away some of Jounouchi's Life Points, this was the difference between Jirai Gumo's 'attack' points of two thousand, one hundred and Axe Raider's original attack points of one thousand, seven hundred.

 **Axe Raider – ATK/2200 – ATK/1700**

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1600**

Honda damned them for using dirty tactics whilst Green proceeded to move the Labyrinth Tank seven more spaces so that it was within perfect striking distance of Flame Swordsman whilst also laying another card in face down defence position which I suspected would only cause more problems for Jounouchi and Other Yugi later on in the game.

"My turn! I play a Spell card Magic Box of Death, I'll use it as a combo with the Black Magician," Other Yugi declared. Black Magician was sealed inside of the box which looked similar to one that stage magicians used with swords raining down and piercing into the Magic Box of Death making it look like that all Other Yugi had succeeded in doing was destroying his own monster.

"He killed his own monster! Why would he do that," Green commented. It did indeed seem like such an odd move to make but I'm sure there was much more to that little trick than what we looking from the outside were capable of seeing.

"No look," Para called out. This statement attracted everyone's attention to the fact that a second Magic Box had materialised around Jirai Gumo, the first box opened revealing that the skewered individual inside was actually Jirai Gumo thus destroying it and Other Yugi's Dark Magician emerged safely from the second box.

"That's right. The Black Magician used the Magic Box to teleport, by sacrificing one opposing monster, it teleports to where it was, starting up a counterattack!" Other Yugi explained. That was quite the impressive trick and with Black Magician now baring the way between Labyrinth Tank and Flame Swordsman, the mighty magician was easily able to annihilate the advanced piece of machinery and damage Green's Life Points at last whilst revealing his name was Dox.

 **Dox – LP: 2000 – LP: 1900**

"We'll show you that our combined strength can overcome anything," Other Yugi firmly stated. These two had proven to be quite the effective team which was a testament to the strong bond and trust they each had in the other, they could very well become one of the best Tag Teams in the world and I had no doubt that each of them would become a strong duelist by themselves as well.

"My turn!" Para announced. To comply with this Para drew a card and when he looked at it a vicious grin appeared on his face which didn't sit well with me at all, Para stared straight at the card he'd drawn clearly contemplating something that neither myself, Other Yugi or Jounouchi could possibly understand.

"What are you dazing out over? Hurry up and get on with it!" Jounouchi exclaimed. Para lay the card face down which was the only move he made, the object that was projected onto the field was a red rectangular box with black rope around it and a yellow kanji character on it.

"What is that?" Other Yugi wondered. Despite the unknown danger that was present, Jounouchi didn't seem to be concerned at all and so he had his Flame Swordsman move forward so that it would be nearing the exit of the maze which didn't seem to sit well with Dox.

"My turn! I set one card face down," Dox commented. He lay a card face down which caused another red box to appear identical to the first except for a blue kanji character, I felt a shiver creep up my spine as I looked at the two boxes, I felt something dark and ancient creeping from them and when I glanced at Katherine it seemed that she felt the same thing I did.

"I flip my set card, the Dungeon Worm into attack position! I also play this face down card Awakening, it raises its' attack power by four hundred points," Dox spoke as he continued with his move.

 **Dungeon Worm – Attribute: Earth, Type: Insect, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1500**

 **Dungeon Worm – ATK/1800 – ATK/2200, DEF/1500 – DEF/1300**

"What did you say?" Other Yugi cried out. The worm then surged forward and it began to burrow its' way underground which prevented any of us from being able to see it until a glow began to emit from where Elf Swordsman was currently placed, the Dungeon Worm surged upwards with Elf Swordsman in its' maw, destroying it. "What?!" Other Yugi cried out once again.

 **Yugi – LP: 1600 – LP: 800**

"Don't screw with us! All you've been doing is cheating the entire game!" Honda argued. It was very clear that the brothers had styled their decks so that the Labyrinth Field would give all of their monsters an advantage with Anzu likening it to a slow torture that we were being subjected to, Jounouchi asked his partner exactly what they should be doing.

"My turn. To counter that, I play Magical Silk Hats! I'll use it in combination with Black Magician," Other Yugi declared. Just as with his duel against Ghost Kaiba, the Hats multiplied until there was four on the field, Other Yugi was quite the magician since this trick also angered the brothers and reassured Jounouchi.

"The Magical Hats is a card that is used in combination with the Black Magician to trick opponents. In two of these hats are the Black Magician and the Flame Swordsman. The Dungeon Worm's attack power is two thousand, two hundred, if it hits the two thousand, five hundred attack powered Black Magician, it'll be suicide," Other Yugi warned.

"Then on my turn I'll play this card. I summon the Monster Tamer in attack mode. Normally I can't control the Dungeon Worm which is my younger brother's monster but the Monster Tamer brings up the Worm's attack strength by six hundred and allows me to control the card on my turn!" Para explained. This added power bonus put all monsters under the hats in danger of being destroyed if they were hit.

 **Monster Tamer – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

 **Dungeon Worm – ATK/2200 – ATK/2800**

The Dungeon Worm was commanded to attack one of the Hats and thanks to that increase in power this whole thing came down to sheer luck now with everyone being extremely nervous as all of us waited for the Worm to reappear, the Worm tore out of one of the Hats but it had been empty leaving both Jounouchi and Other Yugi unharmed for now but the Dungeon Worm would attack again and with only one empty Hat left the odds definitely weren't in the boys' favour.

"My turn! You know I hate dark and cramped spaces," Jounouchi called out. All of us had been worried about the impending danger but Jounouchi's call drew our attention to him and it immediately caused me to wonder exactly what the blonde haired duelist was up to and we soon found out when Jounouchi had his Flame Swordsman **leave** the Hat it was protected by.

"Jounouchi-kun?" Other Yugi questioned. All of us were greatly concerned by this move given that the Magical Hats would have kept Flame Swordsman safe from being discovered by the Dungeon Worm and now that it had been revealed the Dungeon Worm would most likely attack the Warrior next turn.

"Feel the wrath of this card! The Spell card Salamandra, when this spell is equipped to any Fire attribute monster its' attack points are raised by seven hundred," Joey explained. The fiery lizard wrapped itself around Flame Swordman's sword and then it began to shoot straight down the hole that the Dungeon had dug when it attacked the Hats.

 **Flame Swordsman – ATK/1800 – ATK/2500**

"Excellent move. Not only does Salamandra raise Flame Swordsman's attack power but since the effect of the Monster Tamer isn't active at the moment that means that the Flame Swordsman can destroy it," I explained. The Dungeon Worm then spot up out of its' tunnel enwreathed in flames and shrieking in pain from the burning fire before it was destroyed.

 **Dungeon Worm – ATK/2800 – ATK/2200**

 **Dox – LP: 1900 – LP: 1600**

"Good job Jounouchi-kun," Other Yugi congratulated. Honda and Anzu also cheered, whilst I was impressed with Jounouchi's quick thinking I wasn't even close to celebrating like the others for two reasons. The first was that they still needed to win the duel and figure out that blasted door dilemma if we wanted to make it to Pegasus' castle and the second was those red boxes, I was getting a creepy feeling just from looking at them.

"My younger brother don't drop your guard!" Para exclaimed. I furrowed my eyebrows at this, they seemed to be building to some type of plan but what was it exactly that they were aiming for and, more importantly, how dangerous was this plan of theirs.

"My turn," Dox agreed. He then drew a card from his deck and it seemed they had the card that they needed causing scheming smiles to split their faces as the two brothers claimed that their victory is certain which caused my muscles to tighten upon reflex as I worried about what these two nutters were up to in this duel

"I summon Demonic Wind Deity – Hyuga! With this our victory is assured!" Dox proclaimed. I was seriously starting to worry now since Hyuga was the name of a monster that was a part of the Trinity a dangerous trio of monsters I'd heard of, a third red box appeared, identical to the last two with a brown kanji character.

With all three boxes on the field the whole arena began to shake scaring everyone and Jounouchi was especially confused about this whole thing which wasn't surprising considering how rare the Trinity actually was.

"It's the Trinity, the same class as Exodia," I exclaimed. The others looked at me in shock upon hearing those words whilst Other Yugi took on a grim expression, the Trinity and Exodia were in the same class as they needed multiple monsters to summon them out, fortunately the appearance of the Trinity on the playing field didn't guarantee an automatic victory, it was just more likely you'd win.

Three lights, composed of green, blue and yellow, shot forth from the box and they spun together as the Labyrinth Brothers chanted and when the lights faded we saw the creature standing tall comprised as three different monsters called Sanga, Suga and Hyuga but in this form they were known collectively as the Gate Guardian.

 **Demonic Thunder Deity – Sanga – Attribute: Light, Type: Thunder, Level: 7, ATK/2600, DEF/2200**

 **Demonic Water Deity – Suga – Attribute: Water, Type: Aqua, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2400**

 **Demonic Wind Deity – Hyuga – Attribute: Wind, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2200**

"Gate Guardian…" Other Yugi spoke. I had only seen artwork and heard rumours of this beast so it was my first time seeing it was well but I knew of its' might, Katherine's hand tugged on mine and I looked down at her to see that Katherine was just as worried as I was, so I knelt down and put an arm around her shoulder to reassure her.

"That thing's amazing," Jounouchi stated. Bakura claimed it was the god that protected the two doorways of the labyrinth which lead to Honda believing that the two boys couldn't defeat the creature so I took the opportunity to send my hand flying up the backside of Honda's head causing him to look at me as he rubbed the assault spot.

"The Gate Guardian isn't invincible like Exodia. Yugi and Jounouchi just need to summon out a strong enough monster and they can win," I spoke up. Fortunately Jounouchi and Other Yugi weren't about to give up the duel simply because Gate Guardian appeared despite the Labyrinth Brothers attempting to rattle them, Other Yugi started their fight against Gate Guardian by simply laying two cards face down on the field.

"My turn! Gate Guardian attack Flame Swordsman," Para commanded. From the portion of Gate Guardian's body that was made up by Thunder Deity – Sanga, a purple energy beam formed growing lager in size as small tendrils of purple energy whirled around the main beam.

"I can't run, what can I do Yugi?" Jounouchi asked. This time around it didn't look like the mysterious being had a plan to get out of the situation as Sanga's attack was launched at his partner's monster.


	17. Chapter 17

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **UndercaringUnderpaidNarrator, thank you for the review although I'm a bit confused by what you mean when mentioning Athena representing Katherine displays her role as a Hope sister, I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 17: - Come Forth, Black Skull Dragon!

Jounouchi promptly asked Other Yugi for any ideas about how to escape from this sticky situation that they've found themselves and fortunately it seemed that the mysterious being did have an idea, as he swiftly activated the Mirror Force Trap he had laid and it bounced the attack right back towards them

"Gate Guardian, reflect! Squall Barricade!" Para yelled out. The electrical attack was meet with a whirling vortex barrier which prevented the deflected attack from getting through to Gate Guardian. "Gate Guardian is untouchable," Para commented gleefully. Despite this Other Yugi didn't seem particularly worried about that fact.

"But the other monsters on your board aren't safe from the attack," Other Yugi revealed. We watched as the lightning attack struck the Monster Tamer frying him to a crisp and thus still managing to deal some damage to Para's Life Points. "Monster Tamer is beaten," Other Yugi pointed out.

 **Para – LP: 1700 – LP: 900**

Kylie's arm loosened once she was sure that the boys had gotten through this round and I managed to let go of the bunches of my dress and I had seized a hold of when Sanga launched its' attack, the boys were fortunate that time around but now they needed to find a monster that would be capable of defeating Gate Guardian.

I knew that the Squall Barricade would be a troublesome thing to deal with since it could block any attack that was thrown at it and as such the boys would need to find a way to prevent Gate Guardian from being able to protect itself if they wanted any possible chance of us getting out of these damn caves.

"Yes! It's my turn," Jounouchi proclaimed. Before he could make a move, Other Yugi advised that the best way to defeat Gate Guardian would be to destroy each of the three sections that it was made up by, this would also remove any Special Effects that those monsters had like Squall Barricade, it was a good plan.

"I saw that too, my turn! Flame Swordsman use Salamandra's fire and attack Hyuga," Joey commanded. The flaming serpent lunged forward however before the attack could hit, it was intercepted by a burst of water that had originated from the bottom third of Gate Guardian which effectively cancelled out Jounouchi's attack.

"Fool. Don't underestimate the power of the Gate Guardian! It's my turn. Launch a counter attack against Flame Swordsman, Tidal Surge Attack!" Dox spoke. More water gushed forth from Suga and it flooded through the entire labyrinth, whilst Black Magician would be protected by the Magical Hats, the same couldn't be said for Flame Swordsman which cost Jounouchi some Life Points.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1600 – 1300**

I pressed my lips together at what had been revealed to us through Jounouchi's attack, if one section was attacked, then the others would protect it which meant that made it so that the boys' plan of attacking section by section was completely worthless unless they found a way to paralyse the beast making it incapable of protecting itself.

"Flame Swordsman is beaten," Dox proclaimed. Jounouchi wasn't going to let that loss stop him from moving forward if anything, the tighter a situation then the more likely that Jounouchi was going to be able to pull off something that would help them in the long run although the blonde did complain about having almost made it out of the Labyrinth.

"No this turn wasn't a waste. My turn, I set a card on the board then I'll play Demon's Summon and follow in the Flame Swordsman's footsteps," Other Yugi spoke. I smiled as I realised exactly what Other Yugi intended to do, after all the water from Suga's Tidal Surge attack was still flowing on the duel arena.

 **Demon's Summon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 6, ATK/2500, DEF/1200**

"But that attack…," Para commented. He and Dox had cruel smiles on their face clearly believing that the multi-coloured haired duelist had lost his mind.

"Did not even get close to Gate Guardian's side," Dox finished. They both unleashed a cruel laugh and it was quite obvious they hadn't seen the water still languishing in the arena nor did they know exactly how the Demon's Summon attacked its' opponents.

"Is that so? Didn't I tell you? The footsteps have already been placed in the maze," Other Yugi shot back. The brothers were surprised by this and the other spectators finally realised exactly what Other Yugi was getting at since the water would act as a conductor for the electrical attack and guide it right back to where Gate Guardian stood. "Here I go, Lightning Strike!" Other Yugi ordered.

The fiendish monster summoned forth the lightning and the yellow bolts went dancing across the water flowing with ease right back to Gate Guardian so the Labyrinth Brothers attempted to activate the Gate Guardian's defences in order to protect it from the electrical attack however it turned out that Tidal Surge had not only destroyed Flame Swordsman but activate the Curse of Hexagram which had been hidden underneath the other Magical Hat preventing it from defending itself.

 **Demonic Deity of Thunder – Sanga – ATK/2600 – ATK/1900**

 **Demonic Deity of Wind – Hyuga – ATK/2400 – ATK/1700**

 **Demonic Deity of Water – Suga – ATK/2500 – ATK/1800**

The electrical attack soon reached Gate Guardian and with the weakening effect of Curse of Hexagram in play, Demon's Summon was able to destroy Suga thus weakening the Gate Guardian even more and managing to put a nice dent into Dox's Life Points.

 **Dox – LP: 1600 – LP: 900**

"In order to beat it, we need to do it from the bottom up," Jounouchi stated. I wasn't about to relax until this duel was over or at the very least until the guys had a monsters on the field that would be able to destroy Gate Guardian's two remaining sections.

Of course I was still trying to figure out the door puzzle since the brothers had given us a Liar's Paradox earlier, it made me wonder what if the labyrinth escape was also a lie; that could mean either there was no way out or both were the way out but then why would the brothers be down here to begin with.

Due to the fact that Suga had summoned the water to the field it was no surprise that the demon god's destruction would also lead to the water disappearing, although this did take away the advantage of another long range attack using that water, but I'm sure the boys would figure something out.

"My turn, the Remove Trap card," Para spoke up. I frowned as Kylie gritted her teeth at Para's move since this Spell allowed Para to destroy the Curse of Hexagram thus making it harder for the boys to bring out a monster that would defeat the two remaining sections. "The Gate Guardian is back! Your turn now!" Para mocked.

 **Demonic Deity of Thunder – Sanga – ATK/1900 – ATK/2600**

 **Demonic Deity of Wind – Hyuga – ATK/1700 – ATK/2400**

"My turn, this is my card," Jounouchi commented. Jounouchi's card turned out to be Red-Eyes Black Dragon which caused a smile to appear on my face as the dark dragon unleashed a might cry, this mighty beast might actually be able to help the boy's win the match.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

"Also I'll play this Fusion Spell I'd hidden on the board, Fuse with Demon's Summon!" Other Yugi declared as he made the move. This would hopefully lead to the creation of a monster that would be capable of defeating Gate Guardian.

"The Black Demon's Dragon," Jounouchi announced. I giggled at the fact that in this way they were mocking the Labyrinth Brothers whilst also proving their own teamwork.

 **Black Demon's Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon/Fusion, Level: 9, ATK/3200, DEF/2500**

"This is our team's ultimate monster," Jounouchi mocked. However it turned out all of that hard work was for nothing, the Labyrinth Brothers revealed a rule of the Labyrinth which made it so that it was a no flying zone and as such the Black Demon's Dragon couldn't make any progress since it could only move by flying.

"Don't worry, I've got a plan," Other Yugi reassured. This calmed Jounouchi down however the Labyrinth Brothers didn't seem worried by this proclamation at all as they simply began to laugh which rattled Jounouchi once again and it didn't sit well with me whatever the two of them were planning

"My turn. I just drew a scary card!" Dox admitted. We soon found out what that card was when Dox revealed that he was playing the Force Spell card which was of serious concern given the effect that it possessed and the appearance of this card surprised Other Yugi as well.

"Oi, what's that?" Jounouchi asked. The blonde could be slightly dense sometimes with his lack of knowledge that it made me want to throw something at him since this was a serious situation they were in, Other Yugi informed Jounouchi that Force was a rather rare and powerful card.

"Right. This card steals half of the opponent's Life Points and adds them to the attack points of any monster you choose," Dox explained. Jounouchi was appropriately worried about that effect especially since the stolen Life Points were going straight to both sections of Gate Guardian making it stronger.

 **Yugi – LP: 800 – LP: 400**

 **Joey – LP: 1300 – LP: 650**

 **Demonic Deity of Thunder – Sanga – ATK/2600 – ATK/3000**

 **Demonic Deity of Wind – Hyuga – ATK/2400 – ATK/3050**

"This isn't good," Honda stated. That was stating the obvious of the situation, the only good thing about using Force was that it forcibly ends Dox's turn preventing him from using Gate Guardian to attack and possibly destroy Black Magician which wouldn't end well for the boys at this point.

"Jounouchi-kun, I told you that we still have a chance," Other Yugi reassured once again. I had to wonder exactly what Other Yugi could be concocting but I guess the only way any of us would know would be if he succeeded in bring this plan to fruition. "It's my turn, alright this turn I'll move Black Magician into the labyrinth. Black Magician, advance seven spaces," Other Yugi announced.

This seriously confused me since it would take the Spellcaster out of the maze and that seemed to be like an out of the frying pan and into the fire move given that, to my eyes, all Other Yugi had succeeded in doing was getting Black Magician into perfect striking position of Gate Guardian's attack.

"Foolish. Don't forget that the second you exit this maze our Gate Guardian is waiting there to attack you?" Para questioned. I wasn't surprised by the confusion in his tone, even Jounouchi was confused as he asked his partner about this but Other Yugi didn't respond to either question and instead he proceeded to activate the Spell card Resurrection of the Dead although Para didn't wait to see before making his move. "No matter what monster you've revived, it's too late. Gate Guardian attack Black Magician," Para declared.

"Your attack is useless! Suga, Reflection, Tidal Shield!" Other Yugi declared. This move revealed that he had brought Suga back and used its' protective method to defend Black Magician from the attack of Gate Guardian. "The wall of water we created makes your attack invalid," Other Yugi taunted.

"Amazing Yugi! Great move man!" Jounouchi congratulated. All of us had been slightly panicked by Other Yugi's strange move but upon understanding exactly what he was up to all of us visibly relaxed with Kylie practically slumping down onto me as the tension left her body which caused me to smile and so she did the same as we focused on the duel once again.

"You bastards… our attacks did nothing!" Dox yelled. It was quite obvious that Other Yugi's move with Suga had rattled them since they hadn't been expecting either of the boys to have pulled that play.

However Other Yugi didn't seem concerned by the threats of the Labyrinth Brothers as he handed everything over to Jounouchi, the blonde drew from his deck but he seemed to stare at his card for a long time before glancing upwards almost as if he was in deep thought then something seemed to hit him and a strange look appeared on his face which I wasn't really sure how to describe but I stepped closer to Kylie due to how strange it did look.

"I got a great idea," Jounouchi admitted. So that's what his look was, it still was way too strange for me to be able to handle, although I was curious about what idea Jounouchi had from his card. "I use this card to give you pay back from that Force earlier! I'm going to take half your Life Points and add them to our guy's attack," Jounouchi revealed. As he did the blonde threw down his card which turned out to be Mimic Illusionist.

That was one impressive move by using Mimic Illusionist to act as Force Jounouchi had depleted the Labyrinth Brothers' Life Points and had also made it so that Black Demon's Dragon was much stronger than either portions of Gate Guardian and I was beginning to see exactly what Other Yugi's plan might be.

 **Para – LP: 900 – LP: 450**

 **Dox – LP: 900 – LP: 450**

 **Black Demon's Dragon – ATK/3200 – ATK/4100**

"Fool, how many times must I say it! Black Demon's Dragon is not allowed to access the maze! My turn! I'll use Hyuga to attack Suga," Dox lectured. Gate Guardian then began its' attack however instead of electricity being generated by Sanga then flowing to Hyuga to mix it with wind, this time only Hyuga attacked so Suga blocked the attack but then Sanga attacked destroying Suga.

"Why," Anzu asked confused by the destruction of Suijin. Bakura explained that Suga could only use its' Tidal Shield effect once per turn and so in order to destroy the water elemental, Dox had Gate Guardian split its' attack in two phases, fortunately as Suga had been in defence mode Other Yugi hadn't lost any Life Points.

"Yugi, you've got no way to block our attacks. Next turn we win," Para boasted. Despite Suga's destruction, Other Yugi didn't look worried at all in fact he looked rather pleased which reminded me of the look Kylie got when everything was going according to her plan and the opponent didn't even realise this had happened.

"Didn't you realise it?. Don't you know the real reason I brought Black Magician out of the maze?" Other Yugi questioned. He then lifted a card up so that his opponents could see it and angled it for us to see as well. "The Monster Replace Spell card. This card switches my monsters placing the one with the highest attack points in front," Other Yugi revealed.

Thanks to Other Yugi's Spell card, the two monsters were easily able to switches places and with Black Demon's Dragon in the perfect position to attack with its' Molten Fire Ball attack, Gate Guardian was obliterated and along with him were both brothers' Life Points ending the duel in the boys' favour and getting them all the star chips they needed to get inside Pegasus' castle.

 **Para – LP: 450 – LP: 0**

 **Dox – LP: 450 – LP: 0**

"The game is still not finished yet," The Labyrinth Brothers spoke up. This fact drew our attention and Other Yugi muttered something that I didn't quite hear but it seemed that the brothers weren't going to let us get away that easily, Jounouchi practically stomped over to the other end of the room where the doors stood.

Instead of heading straight over to the other end, Other Yugi walked over to us and he had the other three head over to meet up with Jounouchi whilst he turned to the two of us so I decided to tell him my opinion on the whole door puzzle hoping it would help him figure out which one to choose

"I- I don't t-think th-there's o-only one e-exit, Yugi," I spoke up. Other Yugi turned to face me but I ducked my head down and pressed myself against Kylie however I noticed a small gentle smile appear on his face then he turned to face Kylie with a serious expression on his face.

"Kylie do you have any coins I could borrow and a marker pen?" Other Yugi asked. Kylie raised an inquisitive eyebrow but said no more as she withdrew two coins and a pen from her pocket which she swiftly handed to Other Yugi who used the pen to write something on one side of the coin and something on both sides of the other coin.

"Cunning," Kylie commented. I wasn't exactly sure what Kylie meant but Other Yugi shot her a smirk and returned the pen so we all proceeded over to the other end with Other Yugi standing in front of all of us as the brothers reminded us of the fact that we had to choose a door again.

"I didn't forget. Now, why don't you tell us which door leads out of the labyrinth?" Other Yugi asked. However instead of giving us a real answer they simply claimed that only one of the doors was real causing Anzu to yell at them demanding to know which was the real door but neither listened to her. "I knew you'd be like this," Other Yugi spoke up. He was quite right although Jounouchi didn't know the answer when Honda questioned him about this before asking Other Yugi if he had any ideas.

"We'll use these to decide," Other Yugi spoke up as he held out the coins. Other Yugi explained that each coin was marked with a different symbol to symbol a door and the one that was kept clenched in his fist was the one that we would go through, Other Yugi help out his hands and looked between them briefly before opening his left hand to reveal the coin marked with Dox's symbol.

"So that's the Kyū coin," Para commented.

"So the one in your hand is Mei, you've chosen Mei," Dox continued. We eagerly awaited for the answer to be revealed although they were taking great pleasure in making us wait which Dox freely admitted to when one of the others demanded that they answer us already.

"The right answer is…," Para began.

"The Kyū door!" Dox revealed. Revelling in the fact that we'd chosen wrong, the two of them let out a cruel laugh even though I easily knew that this was a complete and utter lie, Anzu asked if that really was the truth.

"As I thought," Other Yugi stated. The brothers were confused by what had just been spoken and I knew that Other Yugi was going to rip their lies to shreds. "There is no right answer. If I picked Mei, you'd say Kyū and if I chose Kyū, you'd say Mei!" Other Yugi explained. Jounouchi ordered the two brothers to stop screwing around.

"Unfortunate for you, you could not say the right answer," Dox commented. I knew he felt no sympathy at all for our fate.

"We win the game," Para finished. However when Other Yugi opened his right hand it revealed a coin marked with Dox's symbol and Other Yugi explained that the coin in his left hand had two symbol on it as he was sure that the Labyrinth Brothers would make this move and so he ensured that this was one bet we couldn't lose.

With that done all of us entered through Dox's door confident that it would lead us out although after a short while Other Yugi stopped and turned to face Kylie whilst holding out the coins to her with a grateful smile on her face.

"Thank you Kylie," Other Yugi spoke. Kylie took the coins and placed them back into her pocket, then Other Yugi knelt down before me and I hid my face on instinct. "And thanks to you as well Katherine, you're statement confirmed my theory," Other Yugi said. I looked up through my hair as this strange person stood up and we continued walking onward.

'Who are you?' I wondered in my mind as I kept my eyes locked on Other Yugi's back even after he had returned to Real Yugi.


	18. Chapter 18

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 18: - The Destined Duel! Yugi Muto VS. Seto Kaiba

"I seriously hope that the Labyrinth Brothers didn't pull a last minute switch on us," Katherine commented. We had been walking down the rocky tunnel for quite some time now and I had to agree with Katherine on that statement because if they did manage to trick us, well they were going to regret when I found them.

"If they did, I will hunt them down and break their bones," I respond. This got a nervous chuckle out of Katherine considering that she knew it wasn't an idle threat and that I really would carry it out.

"You're kind of scary Kylie-san," Yugi spoke up. I looked down at the little boy and sent him a smile to reassure him before turning back seeing that the others also had sweat drops on their foreheads after hearing what I had just said but it didn't bother me.

"Comes with the territory of being a big sister," I answered. It was then that Jounouchi called out revealing that we had finally found the exit and so we all rushed towards it, incredibly happy to have finally found fresh air then Bakura revealed his Millennium Ring was pointing upwards.

"The castle's right there," I pointed out. Seems going into that cave really was worth something since we were right on Pegasus' doorstep and now with me, Katherine, Yugi and Jounouchi having the ten star chips necessary we would be able to get inside the castle and being that much closer to saving Yugi's grandfather – as we had learned during our walk in the cave, apparently Pegasus stolen the man's soul – and Mokuba from the man's clutches.

"We finally made it here Yugi," Jounouchi admitted. I nodded to show my agreement and so we took off up the rather long staircase however at one point Katherine stopped moving which caused me to as well and so I let out a sharp whistle to get the attention of Honda, Jounouchi and Bakura who were in front.

"Yugi and Anzu are still down there," Katherine pointed. I looked down and indeed it was true for some reason neither of them had gotten a move on when we had meaning that they had probably been lost in thought about something.

"Oi! What are you doing?" Jounouchi called out to them. This got their attention and they realised exactly where we were with Honda commenting that if they didn't hurry up then we would be going inside without them causing me to turn my attention to them.

"Technically since you guys aren't meant to be here, how are you going to get in?" I asked Honda and Bakura. They looked at each other completely confused, obviously having not though about this little detail until right this second which kind of made me want to smack the two of them upside the head for their lack of forethought.

Yugi began to move towards the staircase but he ended up tripping on a rock so Katherine immediately rushed back down the steps in order to check on him, I smiled as I watched my little sister go. When I compared her and Yugi they were so similar both being gentle souls and exceptional duelists and yet there was such a vast difference, Yugi was far more confident and open whilst my sister was so shy I was afraid that she would never be able to make friends beyond myself and Mokuba, I knew Yugi would be a good influence on her.

Thinking of Yugi also made me think of the Other Yugi, I wondered exactly who he was and why on earth he was sharing Yugi's body to begin with, the only thing I knew for sure was that both Bakura's and Yugi's Other sides were connected directly to their Millennium Items which supposedly come from Ancient Egypt, could that mean these spirits are from that time as well.

Once Katherine reached Yugi she held out her left hand and pulled him up but before he could say anything she turned and began to run right back to me with Yugi and Anzu following after her, once they caught up with me, we caught up with the other three and continued on our way up to the castle door.

The stairs up to the castle were awfully long but I didn't see how Pegasus could install an elevator all the way out here on an out of the way island that few people ever came to if there wasn't some kind of dueling tournament on however when we reached the top of the steps I looked up and was rather surprised to see Seto standing in front of the door but his eyes told me that this wasn't something he wanted to be doing, his eyes had that look about him that showed he meant business.

"Kaiba-kun," Yugi spoke. His voice however make it seem like it was more of a question than a statement, I didn't blame him though since all of us were confused as to why Seto was standing in our way and not in the castle himself given that he had seemed determined to find and rescue Mokuba as soon as possible.

"I'm not letting you pass," Seto finally spoke. He sounded the same but there was something just the slightest bit off about the way that Seto was carrying himself that the people who didn't know him wouldn't be able to see but to me it looked like his entire body was carrying some invisible burden that threatened to crush him there and then.

"What's wrong Kaiba-kun? What do you mean?," Yugi asked. Seto claimed that he finally understood his fate on the island which seriously confused me but I didn't interrupt as Seto continued by claiming that as long as Yugi was alive then the gentle boy would always be a thorn in his side.

"The winds of battle blow when we fight like a powerful tornado! Forever," Seto spoke. We all moved further up the steps until we were only a short distance away from Seto with Anzu demanding that the brunette should stop stirring up trouble whilst Katherine held a deeply worried look in her eyes as she glanced between Yugi and Seto.

It was quite true there was no reason for Yugi to duel against Seto and delay us getting inside of the castle so that we could save the prisoners but I knew that Seto wasn't one to let go of something that he was determined to have and I knew that Seto would keep finding ways to push Yugi's buttons until he finally gave in and accepted the challenge, the real question was why on earth was Seto so intent on dueling Yugi now of all time.

"Kaiba! I'll be your opponent! I'll punch your lights out!" Jounouchi challenged. It seemed that Jounouchi hadn't learned his lesson from the last time him and Seto dueled each other, fortunately Honda and Bakura hadn't forgotten and so they seized a hold of Jounouchi before he could do something that would get him hurt or worse, they reminded him of what happened last time and this caused Jounouchi to slump down in defeat at this reminder.

"Ha, I can't believe this loser dog **also** collected ten star chips. In that case I promote you from loser dog to nobody," Seto insulted. This only served to anger Jounouchi even more so I stepped around Yugi and took a hold of the collar of Jounouchi's shirt and jacket to help out Honda and Bakura with holding him back whilst shooting Seto a firm glare for those rather demeaning words that I did not appreciate being thrown at a new friend.

"This is what they call a miracle. I was searching for an answer after our last match Yugi. 'Why did I lose to Yugi in that duel?' 'How did Yugi summon a miracle at that time?' and I think I finally found the answer. At that time Yugi possessed something I didn't have," Seto began to explain. It was then that Seto then reached under his shirt and pulled out an Duel Monsters card shaped locket which I knew to contain a picture of Mokuba with Mokuba possessing a similar one that held a picture of Seto when they were younger, my eyes widened as I realised that Seto was demanding this duel in order to save Mokuba.

'But why? What has happened to Mokuba that has made Seto think defeating Yugi will help? Damn you Pegasus, do you enjoy pulling people about like their puppets on strings! Once we're inside I'm going to show you that there are somethings in this world that I'm never going to forgive you for. As for you Seto, please open your heart and see that you don't need to fight Yugi in order to save Mokuba.' I thought.

"Yugi is you want to enter the castle, you have to defeat me **first**! This is a duel of fate!" Seto declared. I could see it was well, Seto had never believed in anything like the Heart of the Cards – Katherine told everyone her little nickname for it and it stuck – before but now he had a reason to fight, something that would make him go all the way and keep him fighting even when it seemed like he couldn't do anything but lose.

The others tried to talk Yugi out of accepting this duel but I had a feeling that he would accept it, Yugi would see the burning determination in the blue-eyed boy's gaze and know that the Seto he once knew was gone and now this different individual had appeared before us, as if knowing how this was all going to end already, Other Yugi then came out.

"Kaiba I understand. I accept this duel and I will **defeat** you," Other Yugi agreed. Seto told us to follow him to where the duel was scheduled to take place and he then began to walk away so that he could guide us there however I remained in my place as I tried to think about this whole thing.

"Kylie is something wrong?" Bakura's voice echoed. I looked up to see him, Katherine and Jounouchi had hung back and all of them wore the same concerned expression but I decided not to worry them especially if it turned out that I was wrong.

"It's nothing, just lost in my own thoughts," I responded. Katherine didn't look convinced but she knew not to push this type of thing and it looked like the two boys had bought my response so the four of us moved up and followed after them as Seto led us to a roof which had two circles on each end so that the duelists could stand there.

"Yugi we'll each bet five star chips on this duel. Only the one who wins may enter Pegasus' castle," Seto stated. Other Yugi agreed to this and so I walked forward and collected the chips from each duelist in order to keep them safe from anything that might end up scattering them.

"We'll use Duel Discs for this match. Shuffle your deck and place your deck into the deck holder on your left arm, Life Points automatically set to two thousand," Seto explained. They did as Seto instructed and now the duel could begin with the others having faith that Other Yugi would be able to defeat Seto however I wasn't so sure since Seto seemed completely different and that would affect how he dueled.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

 **Seto – LP: 2000**

"Here I go Yugi! It's time to determine the strongest! We'll use the Duel Discs to have the ultimate card battle," Seto declared. Other Yugi wasn't even fazed by the threat that Seto had shot at him and instead declared that he would defeat Seto once and for all.

"Here I come, it's my turn. Gargoyle Powered in attack mode," Seto began the duel. The monster was projected onto the field as in the previous duel these were used, but this time around the cards that were still in Seto's hand were also projected which was quite a shock since this hadn't happened the last time but it was still impressive.

 **Gargoyle Powered – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 4, ATK/1600, DEF/1200**

"My turn, Curse of Dragon in attack mode," Other Yugi declared. He hadn't even been surprised by the sudden projection of the cards and as his dragon was brought onto the field, his cards were also projected holographically which made it so that both duelists were partially blocked by the cards making it slightly difficult to see their expressions.

 **Curse of Dragon: - Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1500**

"Yugi, though we are enemies now, we both share the same objectives," Seto admitted. Other Yugi was quick to latch on to exactly what the brunette opponent was saying, beating Pegasus. "That's right. But if you really want to see him defeated your only option is to lose to me here because it's impossible for you to beat Pegasus!" Seto proclaimed. My old 'friend' seemed quite certain of that little detail but how could he be so sure of Other Yugi unavoidable loss to Pegasus.

"What?" Other Yugi shot back. However the CEO didn't respond to the question and Seto instead dared Other Yugi to attack so the mystery man complied yet despite the destruction of his monster, Seto wasn't even fazed by this which meant, from my experience, that he had wanted Other Yugi to destroy the monster in order to gain an advantage later on somehow.

 **Seto – LP: 2000 – LP: 1600**

"As I though you came at me with no fear. It was worth taking the first hit and losing Life Points to make sure you're taking this seriously," Seto explained. Other Yugi looked like he didn't believe a word that Seto said but that was the thing, this was exactly the kind of play that should be expected from Seto, he was the kind of person to leave out a sacrificial pawn to ensure his victory.

"It's fine! Don't be sacred of Kaiba's bluff Yugi," Jounouchi cheered. Katherine looked like she wasn't so sure about Seto's plan herself but then again she had hardly ever dueled against the man before having preferred to spend time with Mokuba whenever the four of us got to see each other on random and sporadic occasions.

"No he isn't Jounouchi. Past experience dueling Seto has taught me that," I spoke up. The others then looked at me but I didn't respond to anything they might be asking me with their eyes as I was trying to figure out exactly what had happened to Mokuba and the only way to do that was for Seto to mention something about it during this duel.

"She's right, it's not a bluff as you will all soon see," Seto responded. He then drew a card from his deck and proceeded to summon out Sword Stalker of Revenge and thanks to the creature's Special Effect it was able to increased its' attack power by twenty percent since a monster was destroyed on the previous turn.

 **Sword Stalker of Revenge – Attribute: Dark, Type: Warrior, Level: 6, ATK/2000 DEF/1600**

 **Sword Stalker of Revenge – ATK/2000 – ATK/2400**

This move had proven that Seto hadn't been bluffing and instead it was a strategic move as thanks to this power boost, Sword Stalker was now stronger than Curse of Dragon so Seto commanded the dark creature to attack Other Yugi's dragon however before the attack could hit Curse of Dragon vanished into thin air confusing the brunette.

"That's because I have the Monster Replace card here! With this Spell card a monster is targeted on the field and switches it with a monster in my hand with the higher attack point. The monster in my hand with the highest attack is the Black Magician," Other Yugi explained. Black Magician appeared on the field and it was quite obvious to me that, like how Blue-Eyes was Seto's signature card, Black Magician was quickly becoming Other Yugi's signature.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

Other Yugi had his magician attack Sword Stalker and destroyed the second of Seto's monsters with ease making it so that Seto's Life Points dropped down further yet despite this little turn around, Seto didn't look fazed in the least, in fact he was far too relaxed for someone who had just lost two monsters and five hundred Life Points in two turns

 **Seto – LP: 1600 – LP: 1500**

"Oh yeah! Kaiba, don't you underestimate Yugi," Jounouchi boasted. I was beginning to grow concerned about exactly what Seto had tucked away in his sleeve as he was a rather skilled and strategically gifted duelist which meant that his relaxed stated could imply he already had the perfect plan in mind for him to defeat Other Yugi in this duel.

"It's my turn, I replay Curse of Dragon in attack mode," Other Yugi spoke. The dragon appeared alongside the Black Magician and now it was Seto's move so he reeled the Duel Disc back to him so that he could relay the cards with the holographic projection of the other cards disappearing when he did so.

"It's my turn, La Jinn the Demonic Spirit of the Lamp. Yugi it's your turn," Seto played. It seemed a rather odd move given that in both attack and defence, La Jinn was much weaker that either of Other Yugi's monsters.

 **La Jinn the Demonic Spirit of the Lamp – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 4, ATK/1800, DEF/1000**

We soon learned exactly what Seto was up to when Other Yugi had Black Magician attack La Jinn, the attack activated the Trap Seto had laid known as the Magic Lamp which protect La Jinn by drawing him into the lamp and then it proceeded to redirect the attack back towards Curse of Dragon destroying it.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1500**

The two duelists were now tied in their Life Points and Other Yugi couldn't destroy La Jinn so long as that Magic Lamp was on the field meaning that Other Yugi had to figure out a way to destroy it if he wanted any chance of defeating Seto.


	19. Chapter 19

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 19: - Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon?!

"What's going on?" Honda asked. Bakura explained the situation we had just witnessed, however I was too focused on the duel playing out before us, it was hard keeping up with these two and, apart from Kylie and Seto, I was the most experienced duelist here which was truly a testament to the level of skill that both Seto and Other Yugi possessed; in fact now that I think about it, of the few I'd actually watched, none of Kylie's duels with Seto never got this intense.

"The match just started," Anzu protested. All of them were so sure that Other Yugi would be able to defeat Seto again but to be honest I wasn't so confident in that regard, Other Yugi was talented but that didn't necessarily mean he would beat Seto again after defeating him once.

I glanced up at my sister to see that her eyes had a half and half look about them, half focused on the duel and half contemplating something only she knew, I recalled when she hadn't moved off of the steps and she had a distant and faraway look in her eyes, it had taken Bakura's newer voice to shock her out of it after me and Jounouchi failed implying that she had been so distracted she hadn't heard us.

"Here I come, it's my turn!," Seto announced. I had always know that Seto was a coarse person but there was something different about him now and I couldn't exactly pin down what it was that had changed within Seto, I was just worried that this change could have a bad effect on this duel.

Seto reeled the Disc back to him and drew a card from his deck which he revealed was the Magic Removal Spell card which he used to destroy a face down Spell card that Other Yugi had out which turned out to be the Sealing Swords of Light.

"A good card was stricken. Sealing Swords of Light stops all my monsters from attacking for three full turns. This card is hard to beat," Seto admitted. Other Yugi didn't appear fazed by the destruction of his card and simply reeled the Disc back to him so that he could re-play his cards.

"Can Yugi-kun defeat that combo of La Jinn and Magical Lamp?" Bakura asked. Fortunately from the duel with the Labyrinth Brothers I knew that Other Yugi had a card in his deck which would be able to solve the problem posed by the Magic Lamp.

"Here I go," Other Yugi called out. The Black Magician was projected along with the cards in Other Yugi's hand, Seto boasted about his plan and so in order to try and glimpse what Seto could be up to, Other Yugi used the Trap card Eye of Truth which forcibly revealed Seto's hand to all of us and we saw, with quite some surprise, that one of the cards was a Blue-Eyes.

"That's… Kaiba has a Blue-Eyes in his hand," Other Yugi questioned. The surprise in his tone was quite well deserved as for all the times I'd seen him duel, Seto had always summoned out his Blue-Eyes the moment he had one on hand so it was strange to see it still in his hand, the others commented on the presence of three being in Seto's deck.

"Three Blue-Eyes…? I didn't realise his deck was that powerful," Bakura commented. Anzu claimed that Yugi had done it before and would do it again however she didn't seem to quite realise that the first time was with the help of the single most powerful monster in the entire game and the second time was that Seto helped him out with the destruction of one of those Blue-Eyes.

"I wonder what Seto's up to," Kylie spoke. Her voice was so soft that I almost missed it and that was a surprise to me as her voice had never sounded so soft before which made me start to think that she was coming down with a cold or something to make her sound like that.

Seto looked extremely angered that Other Yugi had seen his hand but it didn't matter as Other Yugi quickly moved onto the problem he had on hand at the moment as he used the Magic Box of Death this turn and destroyed the Magic Lamp thus forcing La Jinn out into the open and preventing any more attacks from being bounced back and destroying Other Yugi's monsters although how it happened confused Seto.

"You know a good magician never reveals his tricks," Other Yugi responded. At the same time Other Yugi said that Black Magician rose his hand and shook his finger at Seto for asking such a thing and this caused Kylie to let out a brief giggle before she hide her mouth with her hand although I could have sworn that Black Magician had glanced our way and a kind yet sorrowful look appeared in his purple eyes.

With La Jinn unable to hide anymore, Other Yugi commanded his Black Magician to destroy the Genie and this took a serious toll on Seto's Life Points and naturally Seto had been shocked by the sudden twist that had occurred in the duel.

 **Seto – LP: 1500 – LP: 800**

"Kaiba, I won't let you fuse the three Blue-Eyes. I'll take your Life Points to zero before that happens!" Other Yugi proclaimed. My eyes widened so much that I though the orbs were going to fall out of my skull at those words, it didn't seem possible for those three powerful beast to have been merged together, glancing at Kylie told me she was suspicious of the same move.

"That's the Yugi I know, you know me well but don't underestimate me Yugi! My formula for victory is more perfect than you realise," Seto admitted. He then made his move but surprisingly it wasn't Blue-Eyes that was summoned out but Saggi the Dark Clown which was nowhere near powerful enough to with stand the power wielded by Black Magician which made me wonder exactly what Seto could be up to, it was obviously a trap but what kind of a trap was waiting, I couldn't be too sure.

 **Saggi the Dark Clown – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 3, ATK/600, DEF/1500**

Other Yugi was also suspicious of Seto's move and so he withdrew his Black Magician from the battle field as he wasn't about to risk the destruction of his favourite monster for a possible trap and instead he proceeded to summon out Gaia the Dark Knight in order to take the trap for him.

 **Gaia the Dark Knight – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 7, ATK/2300, DEF/2100**

Gaia charged forward and easily destroyed Saggi however Seto claimed that Saggi had simply been sacrificed instead of destroyed like Other Yugi believed and then to our complete shock and horror, the holographic projection of Gaia fuzzed for a short time and then he was destroyed mere moments later.

"Not just Gaia," Seto mocked. Other Yugi exclaimed that Black Magician had also been destroyed and demanded to know exactly what Seto had done to his cards. "This card did it! Deck Destruction Virus of Death! I infected Saggi the Dark Clown with the virus, the second your monster attacked Saggi it was infected by the virus!" Seto revealed. The card flipped around to reveal the trap although I hadn't heard of this card before, Kylie looked like she was going to punch the nearest rock.

As it turned out the Deck Destruction Virus was spreading throughout all of Other Yugi's deck and infecting every monster with one thousand, five hundred attack points or more making it so that they were completely unplayable for the rest of the duel, this left Other Yugi with only Traps, Spells and his weakest monsters to try and fight back against Seto and all three of his Blue-Eyes White Dragons.

"We're about to see if Yugi can really go toe to toe with Seto in this duel," Kylie muttered. Neither myself or my sister doubted the skill that our young friend and his mysterious companion had but I was worried that Other Yugi might not emerge victorious which would prevent Yugi from being able to get inside and save his grandfather.

The rest kept cheering him on believing that Other Yugi would still be able to win because of his past victories, fortunately Bakura seemed to have a clear and level head on his shoulders as he reminded the others exactly what the Deck Destruction did and how this hadn't happened in his previous duels against Seto's deck.

"You may have infected the body of my deck but it the _**heart**_ of the cards that will see me through this contamination," Other Yugi protested. He then reeled in his Disc and proceeded to lay a card on it which turned out to be Silver Fang in defence mode a weak enough monster to survive the Deck Destruction effect but I wasn't sure how well Other Yugi would fare against Seto's deck.

 **Silver Fang – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level: 3, ATK/1200, DEF/800**

Seto drew from his deck and I noticed that he appeared to have a pleased glint in his eyes almost as if the fusion plan he had in store for Other Yugi was all going according to plan and all he had to do was wait for the right cards to come to him, which was a surprise as Seto had never been this methodical or patient before but then the glint soon faded as his focus returned to the duel.

In order for Seto to retaliate against Other Yugi's move of bringing out Silver Fang, Seto proceeded to summon out his Minotaur which was easily capable of destroying Other Yugi's Silver Fang.

 **Minotaur – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1700, DEF/1000**

"Silver Fang is beaten," Seto mocked. Other Yugi wasn't about to give up on this duel but he needed to think of some way to counteract the effects of the Deck Destruction Virus or at the very least prevent Seto from being able to bring out his Blue-Eyes otherwise I was afraid that Other Yugi would lose this duel.

"I still have much stronger monsters in reserve! But even if I stick with Minotaur, the strongest monsters you have are no match for him," Seto taunted. Other Yugi didn't listen to him and so he simply proceeded to summon out a Griffore onto the field although Seto simply found this whole move to be amusing since Griffore's defences couldn't stand up to Minotaur.

 **Griffore – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1200, DEF/1500**

"My Griffore is not in defence mode Kaiba," Other Yugi revealed. It was then we realised that Other Yugi had indeed played his Griffore in attack mode which was seriously confusing in my opinion since Griffore wasn't strong enough either way. "Horn of the Unicorn. I'm combo attacking with this card," Other Yugi explained.

 **Griffore – ATK/1200 – ATK/1900, DEF/1500 – DEF/2200**

Now Other Yugi's move made sense, with Horn of the Unicorn Griffore had been made strong enough to fight back against Minotaur and it successfully destroyed the beast, also since it was a combo attack Griffore was still immune to the effects of the Deck Destruction Virus.

 **Seto – LP: 800 – LP: 600**

"Good going! Sacred now Kaiba?" Jounouchi jeered. I was glad that Other Yugi had been able to destroy Minotaur but I still remembered that Seto had a Blue-Eyes White Dragon waiting in his hand and who knows what else he could be hiding up his sleeve.

"It's Yugi-kun's turn to show his ability," Bakura stated. I seriously hoped that Seto wouldn't be able to put his plan into action before Other Yugi was able to win this duel, I knew Seto was trying to save Mokuba but as far as we knew the boy was fine whilst Yugi's grandfather had his soul stolen and we needed to get it back as soon as possible.

"It's not over yet," Kylie spoke up. The others turned to her and I looked up to see that her lips were thinned as she contemplated something quite troubling which didn't sit well with me, we then turned back to the duel as Seto began his turn by drawing a card which brought out the same glint as before.

"First I activate this Trap card from my hand, Holy Elf's Blessing. The effect of Holy Elf's Blessing increases my Life Points by three hundred points," Seto explained. The monster named and pictured in the card emerged behind Seto and chanted a small spell before dispersing into sparkles which rained down onto Seto

 **Seto – LP: 600 – LP: 900**

I had to admit that Seto was right to make that play, as I had seen from his duels against Haga, the Ghost Kaiba and the Labyrinth Brothers had all shown that Other Yugi could snatch victory from the looming jaws of defeat with seeming mystical ease and it was a wise move for Seto not to take any chances in this rematch.

"Come forth Blue-Eyes White Dragon," Seto called out. He had finally played the card that had been lingering in his hand nearly this entire duel and yet despite it appearing I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease and I wasn't too sure why on earth this feeling had occurred to me all of a sudden.

 **Blue-Eyes White Dragon – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

Seto ordered his radiant beast to take flight and the mighty dragon soared into the sky where she unleashed her Burst Stream of Destruction, the swirling blast shot straight down and it slammed into Griffore destroying the monster and taking most of Other Yugi's Life Points with it at the same time.

 **Yugi – LP: 1500 – LP: 400**

"The trash monster's been killed, your life will vanish soon enough. Now it's your turn," Seto informed. I was curious as to what Seto was up to, fusing his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons into a single unstoppable force, the very idea seemed ludicrous so much so I honestly had to wonder if Seto desire to defeat Other Yugi had finally gotten to the boy's head and he came up with a plan that wasn't even feasible.

Other Yugi said nothing in response to those words as he withdrew a card from his deck and proceeded to play the card revealing that it was the Giant Soldier of Stone played in defence mode, the massive warrior of stone would protect Other Yugi for only a single turn due to it being too weak to actually fight off the overwhelming force of a single Blue-Eyes.

 **Giant Soldier of Stone – Attribute: Earth, Type: Rock, Level: 3, ATK/1300, DEF/2000**

"Something's not right," Kylie muttered. I looked up to see that only I had heard my sister's comment as the others were all still focused on the duel and so I turned my attention to Kylie and saw that her green eyes were clouded with indecision and with worry.

"What do you mean?" I quietly asked. If my sister didn't want to worry others then I would oblige by that wish but Kylie had to trust me with whatever secrets she was carrying at the moment if I was going to be of any help easing her mind, Kylie knelt down so that only I would hear her next words.

"The way Seto's acting, it's almost like he has nothing to lose," Kylie admitted. Now that my sister had said it I finally realised this fact had been what had been off about Seto this entire duel, this was surprising considering the fact that Seto still had to save Mokuba from Pegasus so why would he be acting this way.

"Do you think something happened to Mokuba?" I asked cautiously. Kylie's eyes hardened at my question and I didn't blame her for one bit however Kylie soon untensed and she shrugged her shoulders making it known that she had no idea herself about what had happened to Mokuba but that didn't settle my nerves at all.

Kylie ended our discussion by rising to her feet and she turned her attention back to the duel so I did the same and it seemed that we did this just in time to see Seto begin his move by drawing a card form his deck.

"Yugi… since the first match we had, I've tasted a hunger for victory that was never satisfied … now I can finally satisfy that hunger," Seto spoke. He then reeled the Disc back to him and began to lay cards on it, the way he spoke had me worried as he made it sound almost like he was going to combine them in some way which I had never heard of before. "This pain… I'LL LET YOU FEEL IT!" Seto declared.

The brunette then threw out the Disc and all we could do was watch as Seto fused all three of his Blue-Eyes into a completely different being with him calling it the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and we finally saw the play he had been waiting for.

 **Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon, Level: 12, ATK/4500, DEF/3800**

"How's that? Look Yugi, this is the strongest killing machine! The ultimate form of monster," Seto boasted. The only thing I could do was stare at the towering three headed dragon with an attack power so high I had never seen and rarely heard of another creature possessing such a level before.

"Yugi, are you ready? It is now **your** turn to carry the cross of defeat like I did and you'll crawl on the ground in shame. Here I come, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack!" Seto commanded. Seto had his new dragon unleash its' powerful attack which decimated the Stone Soldier and it was fortunate that the monster had been in defence mode otherwise it would have been over.

I was worried about exactly how Other Yugi intended to come back from this as I didn't know of any monster capable of taking down this creature and I was pretty sure that Kylie didn't, judging by the shocked expression that had been on her face since the dragon came out.

The others cheered Other Yugi on convincing him to remember exactly what he was fighting for, I felt bad for not doing so myself but as my sister wrapped her arm around my shoulders I wasn't so unsure anymore and we watched as Other Yugi drew a card form his deck.

"I… I will not give up!" Other Yugi declared. The mysterious spirit proceeded to draw the top card from his deck with his eyes closed as if putting all of his hopes and faith into his deck. "…ON THIS CARD!" Other Yugi declared.


	20. Chapter 20

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 20: - The Shocking Conclusion!

The tension in the air was thick as we looked over the two duelists waiting for the next person to make a move, Other Yugi remained calm as he looked at his card, his hope, his last lifeline; not making a single move and his face was completely calm preventing any of us from knowing exactly what the mysterious duelist was thinking.

"That Ultimate Dragon can wipe out the rest of Yugi's Life Points with one breath. Seto has the upper hand and he knows it, he's just waiting for Yugi to back down," Katherine stated. She had analysed the current situation perfectly, everyone else was tense as we waited for the next move with my arm around Katherine giving a reflexive squeeze when I felt her tremble slightly against my leg, then Other Yugi began to laugh.

"Kaiba, I just drew the ultimate card into my hand," Other Yugi stated. Seto didn't believe that such a thing was possible and I have to admit that even I was a little sceptical about this trick card that Other Yugi had drawn so I rose to my full height keeping a hand firmly on Katherine's shoulder. "This card… here I go, Kuriboh in defence mode," Other Yugi unveiled as the little furball was projected onto the field.

 **Kuriboh – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 1, ATK/300, DEF/200**

"CUTE!" A squeak came. I looked down at where the squeak had originated from to see Katherine with stars in her eyes, my sister had always found Kuriboh to be adorable and it was the only thing that got her to open up, everyone stared at my sister silently then she realised what happened and immediately stuffed herself behind me with a rosy glow on her cheeks.

"It can't be, the weakest monster, with the lowest attack points, Kuriboh!?" Seto yelled. He did this after he had blinked himself out of the stupor that Katherine's sudden cry had shocked him into, the others were just as confused as Seto most likely was and the same way that I was currently thinking, since I didn't seen how Kuriboh could help.

Seto insulted Kuriboh by calling it a trash monster and claiming that Other Yugi had the right to forfeit the match but if he attempted to joke his way out of the match then Seto wasn't going to forgive him however Other Yugi was firm in his belief that Kuriboh was his trump card and that by the end of the duel Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon will have fallen.

Seto didn't believe that his opponent was being serious then Other Yugi continued his move by activating the Spell card Multiply which was combined with Other Yugi's monster and it ended up creating a literal wall of Kuriboh to surround Other Yugi acting as a barricade between the duelist and Ultimate Dragon with more Kuribohs being spawned by the very moment.

"Indeed this monster is a low level monster with only three hundred attack points but don't look down on it. It has hidden powers that can overtake the strongest of monsters," Other Yugi spoke. Seto was indeed surprised by the sudden upsurge in Kuriboh present on the field but he wasn't going to take this lying down and called it a joke.

"Impossible. This trash in front of my Ultimate Dragon will only make more corpses!" Seto snapped. He ordered his dragon to attack and so the triple blast was unleashed creating a wall of smoke when the attack met the Kuribohs however when the smoke faded, we saw that not only was the Kuriboh wall still standing but Other Yugi's Life Points were untouched confusing us all and especially Seto who correctly guessed how the Kuriboh attacked.

"That's right, the moment an enemy makes contact with it, Kuriboh explodes! In other words, Ultimate Dragon's attack will never destroy Kuriboh! Unless all of them are destroyed, Kuriboh's combo will continue to multiply. In other words unless you defeat **every** Kuriboh, you will never take my Life Points to zero! But before that I will play my second trump card on my turn!" Other Yugi explained.

I was stunned by the incredibility of the current situation whilst Seto may have possessed the ultimate attacking force, Other Yugi now wielded the ultimate defending force because it is literally impossible for Ultimate Dragon to blast through all the Kuribohs at once.

Other Yugi then began to make his move as he decided to use all three of the remaining cards in his hand to go on the attack, these cards included Mammoth Graveyard, Fusion and a Magic-Effect Arrow Spell card which Seto hadn't seen before.

"The Magic-Effect Arrow card allows me to play my Spell cards with the enemy's monsters. I play this Spell card with Fusion, also one of my monsters, Mammoth Graveyard. Just like you fused three Blue-Eyes to create Ultimate Dragon, I'll fuse my monster with Ultimate Dragon!" Other Yugi explained.

With that out of the way, Other Yugi proceeded to start his combo and so Mammoth Graveyard fused with Ultimate Dragon however due to the Zombie-type nature of Mammoth Graveyard it wasn't able to fuse properly with Ultimate Dragon and as such this began to cause the monster to starting rotting and the decay would only worsen with each passing turn; even more, as it rotted away the dragon would lose twelve hundred attack points.

 **Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon – ATK/4500 – ATK/3300**

My eyes blinked in surprise at what Other Yugi managed to pull off, it was a highly impressive move at one of the most crucial points of this duel and if this kept up then Other Yugi would win this duel and we could move on to save Yugi's grandfather and Mokuba from danger.

"This match is **not** over yet!" Seto insisted. It was obvious that he was having a hard time believing that he wouldn't be able to win the duel like he had planned especially after managing to bring out such an impressive beast but that was simply how the game was played, everyone won and lost at some point in their lives and Seto would have to accept that fact no matter how much he didn't want to do so.

The others were also equally happy about the turn of events with Jounouchi taking the opportunity to taunt Seto, I remained silent as I watched the duel with Ultimate Dragon's decay becoming rather evident and it was kind of sad to watch such a beautiful creature waste away.

Seto muttered something that I couldn't quite hear and then he commanded Ultimate Dragon to attack the wall of Kuriboh again and yet the same thing as last time happened with the blast being incapable of breaking through and the wall was simply regenerated once the assault was over.

"I'll draw a card and end my turn," Other Yugi mocked. It was an impressive strategy, all Other Yugi had to do was wait until Ultimate Dragon was weak enough and then he would be able to play a monster which would be capable of destroying the dragon thus winning him the duel.

 **Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon – ATK/3300 – ATK/2100**

Seto obviously hadn't learn from his last two attacks as he commanded his dragon to unleash another of its' attack with the attack being incapable of breaking through once more and the wall was reinforced once the attack was over.

"I also declare my turn over. Kaiba you won't turn this around," Other Yugi informed. The effects of the decay from Mammoth Graveyard was slowly beginning to show as the once lustrous white scales of the Ultimate Dragon had faded and turned an ugly and murky grey colour.

 **Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon – ATK/2100 – ATK/900**

I noticed that Seto's eyes had taken a far off and unfocused look which I didn't like one bit, it looked like someone had broken his spirit which was something I had never expected to have occurred since he was such a proud and stubborn man but maybe there was something we were missing here, a piece to the puzzle that only Seto knew and he hadn't shared with us, something told me it involved Mokuba and Pegasus which made my free hand clench into a fist.

Seto's eyes eventually returned to normal but there was still an near vacant quality about it, in fact this time it appeared that his eyes were dead with all of the other's also being confused by Seto's lack of response to anything happening around him and Honda thought that his loss had finally sunk in.

"He didn't make a move so his turn's over. The Ultimate Dragon's attack power continues to drop," Bakura admitted. I felt a shuffling against my legs so I glanced down to see that Katherine had stepped back to her previous position and her dark eyes were gazing at Seto with a worried expression shining in them.

"I don't like that look," Katherine whispered. I had to agree with my sister, the look in Seto's eyes was not normal for him and I was beginning to worry that in order to win this duel then Seto might start taking some drastic actions which wouldn't be good for any of us, due to his lack of response we could only assume that Seto passed his turn so Other Yugi began his move.

"My turn, I'll play another card!" Other Yugi declared. He threw out the Duel Disc and the Kuribohs moved aside so that the newly summoned monster would have an easy time charging through to reach Ultimate Dragon and once the summoning was completed we saw that it was the Elf Swordsman.

 **Elf Swordsman – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

Other Yugi commanded the elven warrior to attack and it did so cutting off the middle head however as the dragon was originally fused from three Blue-Eyes it would take another strike to finish it off although the difference in power was still dealt to Seto as damage.

 **Seto – LP: 900 – LP: 400**

"Yugi… the game has just started, during that last attack I lost five hundred Life Points. If one of these stone squares on the ground is equal to one hundred of my Life Points… then I'll move backwards for each point I lost," Seto finally spoke. That dead look in his eyes hadn't vanished and since I didn't know what had happened to Mokuba, there were no words that I could say to Seto regarding this however I had to wonder what on earth Seto could possibly be planning as a cold wind blew over the battlements we were stood on.

"What?" Other Yugi questioned. The expression on his face clearly said that he didn't know what to make of Seto's proclamation and then the brunette duelist began to take a step backwards causing my muscles to tense by that single action.

"Five hundred points… in other words five squares," Seto responded. All of us were confused as Seto took even more steps back with the others beginning to wonder if all of this was a trick until Seto stepped up onto the very edge of the battlement causing the blood to drain from my face as a terrible thought crossed my mind and Katherine let out a slight gasp as she saw Seto's actions.

"Kaiba!" Other Yugi exclaimed. The panic on his face was clear for us to see although everyone was too focused on Seto for them to take a glance backwards with Jounouchi wondering exactly what Seto was up to by making the rather peculiar and dangerous move.

"I'm at the edge. If you attack next turn, you'll be taking my **real** Life and I will die," Seto threatened. I felt like the wind had been knocked from my lungs at that statement, Seto's couldn't possibly be serious after all he would lose everything he had if he actually followed through with whatever intention he had in mind.

"Kaiba!" Other Yugi yelled. My eyes widened at the cold tone that had been used to say that word since it seemed like he might actually be considering making the attack just so that he would win the duel which had me incredibly worried about exactly what kind of person this spirit really was.

"I'll gladly die for a duel," Seto tested. The other spectators then began calling out for Seto to stop his actions at once and it was only thanks to their cries that I was finally snapped out of my dazed state.

" **SETO KAIBA**!" I screamed. My voice carried across the battlements and the other spectators jumped with Other Yugi looking very surprised and Seto freezing in the spot as he looked at me. "I have no idea what happened to Mokuba but I swear if you don't get down off of that battlement then you will regret it because your abandoning Mokuba!" I yelled. However instead of the reaction I had hoped for Seto narrowed his eyes to glare at me.

"I'm doing this for Mokuba!" Seto protested. I didn't back down as he glared at me and simply returned it with one of my own so Seto looked back at Other Yugi and drew a card revealing it to be Resurrection of the Dead which he activated to revive the head of Ultimate Dragon which had been destroyed although it had the original attack power of three thousand for a Blue-Eyes, since the creature was revived to a huge mass of decay it couldn't attack now, making it Other Yugi's turn.

Other Yugi didn't make his turn right away, in fact he seemed to be struggling with himself implying that Yugi and the spirit weren't exactly in agreement about what had to be done concerning Seto, in this case Seto had really put Yugi in a no win scenario since winning the duel would result in the loss of life for Seto whilst losing the duel would make it so that Yugi wouldn't be able to get inside and save his grandfather from Pegasus.

'This is a low move Seto. One I never would have expected from you given the circumstances. Is this how far you've fallen?' I thought. My thoughts were dark especially towards someone I've known since childhood but in this case I wasn't going to make any kind of exceptions since this was a very cruel stunt to pull on such a naturally kind individual and one I wouldn't forgive until I got to talk to Seto.

"HERE I GO KAIBA! Elf Swordsman!" Other Yugi declared. I heard Anzu screaming something but I couldn't quite make it out as everything seemed to fade away with the declaration that Other Yugi just made and I felt something painful stab into my chest where my heart was.

'This isn't right, I don't know how but I know this isn't right.' I thought. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as Elf Swordsman ran forward to strike down Ultimate Dragon whilst at the same time Anzu charged over to Other Yugi calling out to him about something that I still couldn't hear.

"STOP IT!" Katherine scream broke through the muffling silence. My sister had stepped out from beside me and I saw the panic stricken grief that had taken place upon her normally gentle features.

"STOP!" An equally loud scream echoed. Elf Swordsman's march ground to a halt so I looked over to see that Anzu had reached Other Yugi only to find that he had turned back into Yugi who had given the order to stop, this move effectively ended his turn and so Seto took the opportunity to attack the elf and this won him the duel.

 **Yugi – LP: 400 – LP: 0**

Once the holograms had faded away all of us immediately rushed to Yugi's side with Katherine dropping down beside him and she gently rubbed her left hand up and down his back as quiet tears leaked out form his eyes and staining the bricks a darker colour, the rest of us simply stood in front of him as the poor boy shook with fear.

"I couldn't do it, if I continued the game, Kaiba-kun might have died!" Yugi cried. I felt like my heart was breaking into a dozen pieces with the others realising exactly why Yugi had opted to throw the match. "I'm scared… I'm really scared, of this game… and of the other…," Yugi rambled. Anzu knelt down and said Yugi did the right thing.

"You showed weakness in the end. So I've won, Yugi. If you had the cold-heartedness to push me off the battlement, you would have won. It's foolish to care about a duelist's safety," Seto's voice cut across. I felt every muscle in my body stiffen upon hearing him speak as I had seriously hoped he would have just walked off with the star chips because I was not in the right frame of mind to be dealing with him.

"No! You're wrong! The one who lost the game, Kaiba-kun, is **you**!" Anzu yelled. Seto didn't even see fazed by her cries but he did question what the brunette girl meant. "Kaiba-kun… you bet your chip of life as if it were nothing. You lost to **yourself** , when you realised you would lose to Yugi, you couldn't live anymore! **Real** courage is protecting that chip in your hands no matter what, the moment you give that up, you **lose**! Yugi protected your chip instead of winning!" Anzu continued on her rant.

Everything happened too fast this time around that I don't think anyone could have stopped it if they tried because one moment I'm staring at Yugi's quaking form the next I'm in front of Anzu as a loud sound rang out across the battlements and it was only when my eyes cleared that I realised I had slapped Anzu with the brunette girl and the others too stunned to do anything.

"How dare you! You judge him and yet you know nothing! You have no right to call Seto heartless, especially when he's doing all of this for Mokuba! Because Real Courage, is sacrificing that chip of life for the one most important to your life!" I yelled. Anzu didn't even get a chance to respond as I immediately whipped around and walked towards Seto as I scrapped up the star chips from where I had dropped them but once close enough I threw a punch into his stomach causing the boy to double over when I pulled back.

"As for you, get out of my sight," I hissed. Seto froze upon my dark look that I pierced him with. "I don't know who you are but you had better come back as the Seto Kaiba I know. NOW LEAVE!" I yelled. I dropped the star chips and walked back over to Yugi where my expression softened to the young boy.

"Let's get down from here you need more oxygen," I gently spoke. I drew the boy towards me and lifted him up as his body was still too unsteady to walk so I would carry him down. "It'll be ok," I cooed hoping to sooth the boy as we walked away from the battlements.


	21. Chapter 21

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 21: - A True Friend

We had returned to the gateway with Yugi having pulled out of Kylie's grip on the way down but now he was kneeling completely unresponsive in front of the gate way even as the others tried calling out to him however none of their words were reaching through to him and I was beginning to get seriously worried about Yugi, this wasn't like the normal happy boy I had met.

'Maybe I should do… the only thing I can.' I thought. With my mind made up I walked over towards Yugi, feeling everyone's eyes on me as I moved given that I had been quiet throughout their talking but I ignored them and crouched down beside Yugi and held out my Duel Glove for him.

"Yugi take my star chips," I offered. Shocked gasps erupted from everyone and the next thing I knew Jounouchi was in front of me on the other side of Yugi looking at me with an disbelieving expression etched onto his face.

"You mean that Katherine?" Jounouchi asked. He knelt down so that we were nearly at eye level however I didn't remove my brown-black eyes from Yugi's prone form as he hadn't even responded to me so I hoped that my response to Jounouchi would get something out of Yugi.

"Of course. Yugi needs to save his grandfather and you need to save your sister, Kylie's a better duelist than me and she'll help all she can so it makes sense for me to give up my chips," I explained. Jounouchi nodded understanding my reasoning and so he encouraged Yugi to take them yet the poor boy still didn't respond to anything.

"Oi! Yugi. Don't just sit there… that least **say** something!" Jounouchi yelled. He then seized Yugi by the collar and hauled him up so that his feet were slightly off of the floor causing me to bolt to my own feet out of sheer surprise. "Don't you care about gramps?!" Jounouchi yelled. Kylie, Honda and Bakura had rushed over to calm Jounouchi down when he hauled Yugi up.

"What are you all doing out here?" Mai's voice cut through. All of us turned to face the blonde woman with Jounouchi setting Yugi back onto solid ground. "Huh? Jounouchi… you collected ten star chips?" Mai asked. She appeared to be genuinely surprised by the blonde boy having done just that, whether because she still doubted his abilities or something else but she was still surprised especially when Jounouchi explained the situation to her.

"Yugi **lost**?! Don't screw around with me! How can you be defeated without entering the castle?! I won't accept this!" Mai angrily yelled. We all knew that the woman wanted to face off against Yugi and my sister but there wasn't anything we could do to snap Yugi out of his stupor at the moment but then Mai surprised all of us when she held out her hand in a fist but then turned it over and opened her fist to reveal that enclosed within was five star chips.

We also learned that Mai already had ten star chips of her own thus by handing over these five chips, she would still be able to get inside and so Jounouchi encouraged Yugi to accept them but he still remained as frozen as a statue which caused Mai to retract her offer after a bit as she got annoyed with him and told Yugi she had overrated him because of his attitude after he lost, she then challenged him to a duel for the star chips but Yugi didn't even flinch making it known he wasn't responding to this challenge.

"I'll duel you," I spoke up. Everyone whipped their heads to my location and so I lifted my glove to show Mai the ten star chips I had. "I've got ten chips so why would you decline unless you're afraid of losing to a kid," I baited. I practically heard my sister's jaw hitting the floor in shock as I rarely ever did this kind of thing, Mai blinked her eyes before letting out a laugh at my words.

"You've got guts Katherine-chan but I want to be sure. Do you really want to duel me?" Mai asked. I nodded my head to show her that I did and so Mai accepted with her pointing out that there was a duel arena at the bottom of the steps that we could use to host the duel.

"What do you think?" I heard Honda ask. Mai turned and began heading down as she asked Anzu about the ice pack she had pressed against her face with Anzu shooting a glare in Kylie's direction which only caused Mai to raise an inquisitive eyebrow but as Kylie's back was turned with her focused on me, she didn't see it.

"We've never see Katherine duel," Jounouchi responded. I knew why he was unsure but I wasn't about to lose to Mai since Yugi needed those star chips and I was going to do everything I could to make sure that that I won this duel, for the sake of my new friend.

"She'll be fine don't worry, Yugi's in good hands," Kylie spoke up. The boys then began to shuffle Yugi down so that he could watch the duel whilst I took a breath to calm my racing heart, Kylie knelt down so that she could see me although I sent her a smile to reassure her that I was alright so with that out of the way the two of us headed down the steps with Kylie joining the others and me walking over to the blue podium.

 **Katherine – LP: 2000**

 **Mai – LP: 2000**

"I'll go first and I summon out Bird of Victory, Nike in attack mode," I called out. The falcon was projected onto the field with its' large tanned wings stretched out and its' golden talons glinted as they waited to pierce into something and destroy it.

 **Bird of Victory, Nike – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged-Beast, Level: 2, ATK/1000, DEF/700**

The others remained quiet as we waited for Mai to make her move and she did so by summoning out her Harpie Lady in attack mode which was hardly a surprise since, as I learned from Jounouchi's duel, that was the only monster that was in her entire deck but the numerous equip cards would make it a difficult monster to defeat.

 **Harpie Lady – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400**

'But I have something that might be able to deal with that nasty piece of work.' I thought. My eyes focused on my deck as the image of the card that I would need appeared in my mind, I just hoped that I would be able to draw it in time and with that done I turned my attention back to the current predicament at hand.

"And I'll lay this too, face down. Attack!" Mai commanded. She had slid a card into the Spell and Trap zone but I would focus on that later as I watched the two winged creature dance in the sky as they battled although as she had the lower attack points, my Nike was eventually destroyed by Harpie Lady.

 **Katherine – LP: 2000 – LP: 1700**

"You know kid, you may have ten star chips but that doesn't mean you can beat me," Mai taunted. I wasn't going to let any of the words she say rattle me not when there was so much riding on this one duel that the option of losing wasn't really available for me.

"Want to bet?! You've never seen me duel Mai so how could you know I can't beat you, unless you really are scared of me," I shot back. Gasps echoed from down below as Mai's eyes widened and she blinked like someone had just unveiled some great universe shaking secret to her that she hadn't been ready to hear.

"What the- is that really Katherine?!" Honda exclaimed confused. Kylie began to laugh and so everyone turned to look at my sister who had a smile on her face before turning to the others who wore the exact same look of confusion except for Yugi who didn't even seem to be responding to anything that was happening around him.

"Yeah, don't ask why but when she duels, Katherine gets so focused that her normal shyness drains away and you get to glimpse the real Katherine Hope," Kylie responded. Everyone still looked confused but I turned my attention back to the duel as I looked at the card I had drawn, I looked at Mai's face down as I gently pressed my teeth against my bottom lip, it was risky but I needed to take the risk no matter what might happen.

"I summon Child of Wine, Dionysus," I spoke up. The being was projected onto the field, he had pale skin and a slightly dazed look in his mahogany eyes, he wore a simply toga with no shoes on his feet, around his head was a wreath of grapevines with curly brown hair resting underneath the vines.

 **Child of Wine, Dionysus – Attribute: Earth, Type: Fairy, Level: 3, ATK/1400, DEF/1500**

I commanded Dionysus to attack with his Madness Curse attack and this caused the dazed look in his eyes to vanish as they became focused then dark violet energy streams shot out from his fingers and began to wrap around Harpie Lady forming a ball however it soon turned out that Mai's face down had been the Spell card Rose Whip which gave Harpie Lady a boost of three hundred attack and defence points.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1300 – ATK/1600, DEF/1400 – DEF/1700**

With this new attack power, Mai's Harpie Lady was easily capable of destroying my Dionysus which resulted in the damage taking a few more points off of my Life Points.

 **Katherine – LP: 1700 – LP: 1500**

"Clever move. Mai tricked Katherine into attacking by making her think that her Dionysus had the most points but what Mai didn't reveal until after Katherine attacked was that she had a Spell card waiting to power up her Harpie Lady. Another mistake like that and it's all over," Bakura explained to the others. However a scoff was heard and I knew that it was Kylie without even looking since she was the only person who had seen me play before more than once.

"It was no mistake. My sister has a style of play that you guys wouldn't understand and neither would Mai, in the end my sister will win," Kylie informed. Everyone made a confused sound at my sister's declaration but they soon turned their attention back to the duel although Yugi was still being mute about this whole thing

'Alright that's one card but I'm going to need Mai to increase her Spells some more before I'm able to defeat her so for now the only thing I can do is wait.' I thought. Mai made her move by playing another face down in the Spell and Trap zone which was probably another equip spell of some type which meant that Mai was following my plan perfectly and she didn't even know it.

With that over I reached out and drew a card from my deck seeing that it was a Trap card, known as Chaos Void which would definitely come in handy later on, with that I looked at the cards in my hand as I tried to plan out which monster I should send out to fend off the Harpie Lady for now.

"You can do it Katherine," I heard Jounouchi voice. I looked down and the others cheered me on was well with Kylie giving me a reassuring smile however Yugi was still lost in his own mind and I was beginning to worry that nothing would break him out of the stupor that he had been shocked into ever since his loss to Seto.

"And you Yugi? Are you with me?" I asked. My voice was gentle and almost inaudible yet I saw Yugi's eyes twitch and his head raise slightly which gave me a spark of hope and so I turned back to face Mai and plucked a card from my hand. "First I'll lay a card face down and then I summon out my Lady of Love Aphrodite," I called out.

A dazzling woman appeared with the richest red hair and soul seeing pure amber eyes, she was dressed in a radiant reddish-pink Grecian dress with golden jewellery around her wrists, fingers and neck which highlighted just how pretty this holographic projection truly was.

 **Lady of Love, Aphrodite – Attribute: Light, Type; Fairy, Level: 5, ATK/1300, DEF/3000**

Everyone was gob smacked and I swear Honda and Jounouchi looked like they might be drooling whilst Bakura commented that she seemed too beautiful to be a simple projection, Mai's eyebrows had raised as she looked over my creature before allowing a smirk to rest on her face

"Hun, that gal doesn't stand a chance against my Harpie Lady, Whip Lash attack," Mai pointed out. Harpie Lady charged forward however at the last second I activated my Chaos Void which reduced all of the battle damage to zero although Aphrodite was destroyed by Harpie Lady however I allowed a smile to rest on my lips.

"Tell me Mai do you know Greek Mythology?" I asked. Mai's eyes widened at my sudden question but I could tell from the look in her eyes that she had no clue what I was talking about meaning that I would have to explain this to her and probably the others as well.

"In the beginning only Ouranos, God of the Sky and Gaia, Goddess of Earth existed, they had children but Ouranos despised the first batch and cast them into Tartarus so in revenge Gaia had her youngest son Cronus kill Ouranos and his corpse was tossed into the sea. Despite this betrayal Ouranos still love Gaia and from his love arose Aphrodite the first Olympian God," I explained.

"What does that have to do with this duel?" Mai asked. It seemed that she obviously hadn't caught on to what I was implying despite the fact that it should have been rather obvious considering the last part of my explanation.

"My deck is based on the Gods and do really think something born from pure love will be destroyed so easily," I shot back. Mai's eyes widened and as they did rose petals flooded the grounds and from them came back Aphrodite and then she glowed pink as she crossed her arms and bowed her head. "Lady of Love, Aphrodite is indestructible in battle and after being attacked automatically switches to defence mode," I explained to Mai.

I felt something stirring in my chest from deep within my heart and I knew it was to do with Yugi's current predicament, it was strange how after such a short time I become so attached to these unusual and interesting people especially the sweet and gentle young boy whom seemed to be their leader, I felt like I needed to get this feeling off of my chest before it overwhelmed me.

"I'm going to win Mai. No matter what cards you play or what combos you attempt, I'm going to win. That's because I have a reason to, someone needs me in this duel and I'm not about to let him down. Like how Kylie stood up for you, I'm standing up for Yugi because he's my friend and right here, right now he needs me so I don't have the luxury to lose," I declared.

Mai blinked and her eyes softened as she recalled the night the Player Killer had attacked her, I looked at my sister who had a beaming smile on her face with everyone else being shocked but also wearing a bright smile on their own faces, even Anzu despite the pain it must have been causing her, my eyes eventually focused on Yugi and I felt a smile break across my face as Yugi meet my gaze head on.

"Great speech Katherine but aren't you being a bit cocky after all the only thing you've done so far in this duel is lose Life Points, your Gods aren't exactly helping you out," Mai mocked. I didn't say anything back and after drawing a card I simply passed my turn since Mai didn't have nearly enough cards out on the field yet for me to set my plan in motion and the card I needed wasn't here yet.

Mai threw down another card which was Cyber Bondage meaning at the very least there were two Spell cards out on the field which meant that I would have to make my move next turn if I had any chance of defeating Mai in this duel, thanks to Cyber Bondage's effect Harpie Lady gained another boost in attack power but thankfully not enough to break through Aphrodite's defences.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1600 – ATK/2100, DEF/1700 – DEF/2200**

"That's not good. Luckily Aphrodite's got one hell of a defence power," Honda commented. The others agreed with him although Yugi didn't make a sound but since he had looked at me I didn't need to hear any words from him, since I had no other monsters out Mai was forced to end her turn and so I reached out and placed my hand on my deck.

'Please, answer me.' I prayed. I then drew the card at the top and flicked it over to see the card I had been waiting for this and this caused an excited smile to spread across my face as it seemed that my deck had listened to the request that I had made.

" _Oh little lady, is it time to unleash my magic?_ " A voice echoed in my mind. It was familiar and comforting, so I looked at Mai who had a confused expression on her face as she waited for me to make my move but little did she know that this was the last move of the duel.

"This will be hard for you to believe Mai but you've lost. Come forth Mistress of Magic, Hecate," I declared. Roaring fires erupted in a swirling vortex as my monster was summoned out onto the field, the fires soon subsided to reveal a woman standing in them, curled brown hair was pulled back into a bun whilst sharp violet eyes gazed at Mai, her white Grecian dress was etched with paired torches, as a serpent coiled around the bottom of her dress whilst a dagger and ring of keys hung from the golden cord around her waist.

 **Mistress of Magic, Hecate – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2400**

"I'm activating one of Hecate's Special Effects, by removing a card from play I can destroy every Spell on your side of the field," I explained. Mai's face immediately paled at this announcement, I withdrew a card from my hand and placed it into my pouch to signify its' removal from the game. "Hecate go, Magic Mastery," I called out.

Hecate began to chant in Ancient Greek preventing us from understanding a word she was saying but her hands began to crackle with magical energies as they reached and wrapped around Cyber Shield, Rose Whip and the face down that Mai had yet to play, proving that it had been a Spell card all along, and they were ripped over to my side.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/2100 – ATK/1300**

I saw that the other card had been Harpie's Feather Duster which would have caused a serious problem if Mai had activated it when I played Chaos Void since it had the power to destroy all the Traps and Spells on the opponent's field, Hecate's magic then proceeded to crush the spells however the fragments didn't disappear.

"By the way for every Spell card that's destroyed, you lose three hundred Life Points," I added on. Mai's face only got worse whilst everyone let out cheers of excitement as the fragments of Mai's spells transformed into three burning torches which then flew straight towards Mai smashing against her and depleting nine hundred from her Life Points.

 **Mai – LP: 2000 – LP: 1100**

"Since that was a Special Effect, I can still attack with Hecate and with your Harpie back to her original attack power and my Hecate wielding two thousand and five hundred points, well you do the math Mai. Go Ancient Magic!" I declared. Mai realised exactly what this attack meant and she allowed a small smile to spread across her face even as her Harpie was engulfed in the same magical energies.

 **Mai – LP: 1100 – LP: 0**

"That was impressive Katherine, you lead me through this duel and I didn't even know it until you brought out Hecate but whatever Yugi is dealing with he has to do it alone," Mai spoke up. Everyone quietened down as Mai spoke and I had to admit that she was right, only Yugi could sort out whatever had messed with him during the duel with Seto which I'm sure had something to do with his other side.

"I know that Mai but Yugi also needs see we're here to support him, he may have to deal with his problems himself but never alone," I responded. Mai smiled and then the two of us got down from the podiums and we headed back over to everyone else and Mai gave me the star chips so I walked over to Yugi who looked at me and I held them out to him.

"Thank you Katherine for everything you did and especially what you said," Yugi spoke. He then took the stars and put them in his duel glove although he then raised his head to look at me with a questioning gaze. "I wasn't so out of it to miss all the duel so how did you get so good?" Yugi questioned.

"Well I'm the Duel Monster British Isles Regional Champion," I responded. Everyone was shocked by this causing Kylie to laugh and then we all began to rush over to the castle since we could all now enter, I just hoped whatever problems Yugi was having he would be able to sort them out before the final stage of the tournament began.


	22. Chapter 22

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you 2kirschcherry for your review, although I don't quite understand what a G is.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 22: - Champion vs. Creator (I)

All of us charged towards the gates of the castle, completely intent on getting inside so that we could face Pegasus and rescue the ones that he had imprisoned however as we arrived at the doorway into the inner area of the castle we found our way was blocked once more but this time by the thug from the Ghost Kaiba incident who didn't look happy to see us at all.

" **You** guys… you earned enough star chips?! But only five can now enter the final round," The thug stated. Me, Katherine, Mai, Yugi and Jounouchi all walked forward and showed off our filled duel gloves causing the thug to become slightly pale as he realised that we did have enough star chips to get inside.

"We are those five people," Mai commented. Jounouchi claimed that since we technically met all the conditions to enter then there really shouldn't be a problem which angered the thug, we then stepped around him and I inserted my star chips into the dial lock and then twisted the central knob which opened the doors for us.

All of the duelists stepped inside however a problem was soon encountered when the thug absolutely refused to let Honda, Bakura and Anzu inside and I knew that the two boys weren't likely to go on without their friends backing them but Mai quickly gave us a plan to work with and so we got into position with her heading back out whilst the rest of us got behind the doors ready to push.

"Don't be so cheap. Just let this pass, P-l-e-a-s-e, 'kay?" Mai asked whilst flirting. I heard the thug pause for a bit before continuing to refuse but the others soon darted through the gates so we began to close them and then I heard the sound of something hitting something else and Mai dashed through just as the gates closed preventing the thug from being able to follow us with Jounouchi reinforcing this by sliding a lock in.

"Ok, let's go," Yugi commented. We all agreed and darted off down the hallway we were in, it was nice to see that Yugi was returning to his normal self however I also knew that whatever pain the spirit's actions had inflicted upon the young boy earlier was still bubbling underneath the surface and he would have to deal with it soon.

I wasn't exactly sure how but it seemed we knew exactly which direction to head in and we soon arrived upon a balcony area where three other people were already standing there, the first person to catch our eyes was Bandit Keith and I was incredibly tempted to walk over and punch him, the second person however stopped that as I realised it was Michael Godwin although I didn't recognise the third man.

He was Mai's age with reddish-brown hair that was in a buzz cut style, his sickly amber eyes didn't seem interested in anything as he stared at the ceiling, he wore a grey, short-sleeved muscle shirt with black jeans and black combat boots on his feet.

"Bandit Keith," Jounouchi spat. I had to agree with how the blonde boy was feeling one hundred percent although Jounouchi's comment ended up attracting everyone attention to us with the third guy scoffing at our presence and then he looked back at the ceiling although Michael smiled and nodded his head in greeting which I returned.

"Oi, oi, ain't this a surprise?! I can't believe you got out of that cave," Keith insulted. In retaliation for his previous action and those words, Jounouchi rushed forward and attempted to hit Keith however the blonde man simply dodged or blocked the strikes before pointing out that there was going to be an interesting show going on which was to take place below us so we walked to the ledge of the balcony and looked over to see that Seto was standing down there.

Keith informed us that Seto and Pegasus were going to be dueling each other which confused us and then the head of security knowns as Mister Crocketts stepped onto the balcony and took over speaking after informing us that this titbit of information was actually quite true.

"The eight contestants in the championship tournament. Welcome to Pegasus' Castle, though it seems like some uninvited guests have let themselves in. Well I'll let it slide this time, in any case for the ones who have survived their matches in Duelist Kingdom. To show his appreciation, Master Pegasus has prepared a special match for our guests. You will all simply participate as observants," Crocketts explained.

Mai claimed it was simply for Pegasus to show us how strong he actually was, with Jounouchi claiming that the man was looking down on us as Crocketts admitted that Mai's theory might actually be correct, I had to agree that from what I heard so far Pegasus was indeed staring to sound just a little crazy.

"I'm not interested in some stupid exhibition match, I'm here to win!" The mystery guy yelled. He then pushed off of the wall he was leaning against and took off muttering something along the lines of stupid people then he disappeared around a corner preventing us from hearing any more of his pathetic complaining.

Crocketts sighed then turned on his heel and began to walked after the man so the rest of us turned to look down in order to watch the match which would be beginning shortly since Pegasus came out with two guards on either side of him with Pegasus welcoming Seto back into his castle but the brunette didn't say a damn thing, simply staring Pegasus down.

Pegasus revealed that the two of them had a pre-set agreement that if Seto won against Pegasus in a duel then Pegasus would return Mokuba to him and suggested that they enjoy a good duel, as he spoke a malicious glint appeared from underneath his curtain of hair which probably meant it was his Millennium Eye.

"I'd really like Kaiba and Pegasus to both lose but if Pegasus loses, we won't be able to enter the championship finals," Jounouchi admitted. Honda then claimed that they wanted to see Seto as the loser dog this time around which caused my lips to twist into a sneer, Michael then came over to us.

"I take it none of you are fond of Seto Kaiba from the way you're talking," Michael spoke. Everyone turned to look at the man, apart from Mai, he and Keith were the only ones here that had absolutely no idea about all the stunts that Seto had pulled on us especially the most recent one that had nearly cost Yugi his chance to get inside.

"It's very long and very complicated but I would like to remind everyone, that whilst I'm pissed as hell at Seto for his earlier stunt, don't forget he's fighting for his younger sibling who's in danger," I responded. Michael nodded and as I looked at the others Jounouchi had the good manners to look appalled at himself since my words forced him to realise that technically he and Seto were fighting for the exact same thing at the moment.

At that moment Pegasus decided to inform Seto of our presence causing the brunette to turn to face us and naturally he was very surprised to see that Yugi standing there with us but he soon calmed down and figured Yugi found a way even claiming he had expected it to happen anyway.

"Now then let's begin our duel Kaiba-boy," Pegasus commented. In response to this Seto tossed one of the Duel Disc systems at Pegasus who barely caught it and looked surprised. "Is it supposed to be used as a fan? But it is a bit heavy for that or maybe you toss it around like this?" Pegasus pointed out.

He even rolled the device along the bridge they were stood on however this aggravated Seto and he yelled at Pegasus so Pegasus made a suggestion that someone else would operate the device although he would still make all the strategic decisions.

"That bastard!" Keith exclaimed. I couldn't help but agree with the other American in this position, Pegasus was definitely up to something and it wasn't anything good at all in fact it was probably going to be something in order to force Seto to give up the only edge he had.

"I'm hating the words coming out of my mouth but I agree with Keith," I added. Everyone nodded their heads as they agreed with my sentence and I noticed that Katherine looked rather worried about this whole thing with her eyes focused passed Pegasus, to the door behind him; the door then opened as Pegasus called for the person who was to take his place and it turned out to be Mokuba however he didn't even twitch upon Seto's cry out his name and his eyes were completely vacant.

"What's the matter Kaiba-boy? Aren't you glad to have Mokuba-boy as your opponent?" Pegasus asked. Those words did not sit well with me at all with Seto yelling Pegasus' name and the others also noted that something wasn't quite right with Mokuba, he was cuffed to another guard and together they walked forward until they were standing close to Pegasus.

"Mokuba-boy's soul has been sealed in this card," Pegasus spoke as he held up a card containing Mokuba's frighten image. Shock ran right through our systems at this revelation, naturally Anzu, Jounouchi, Honda, Mai, Michael and Keith were completely stumped but due to past experience the rest of us perfectly understood what Pegasus meant and it made me realise exactly why Seto had taken such a grave risk during his duel against Other Yugi, because he literally had nothing left to lose if he did lose to Other Yugi.

"Pegasus! You bastard," Seto called out. Mokuba had been handed the Duel Disc system but I knew that Seto would be incapable of dueling against Mokuba and Pegasus knew it too with him taunting Seto over the edge he would have if it was used. "W-wait. T-That's the one thing… that's the one thing I can't do. I understand Pegasus, I'll take back using the Duel Disc," Seto submitted.

Pegasus agreed and as such Mokuba was taken away then the bridge divided and pulled back enough for a duel arena to be lowered down from above and then the two sections were connected to the duel arena via lasers which guided them as to where they had to slot into the duel arena to be connected.

 **Pegasus – LP: 2000**

 **Seto – LP: 2000**

"Kaiba-kun, watch out for Pegasus' Pot of Dragon-Tribe Sealing!" Yugi called out. Seto stopped just as he was putting his deck down and turned to face Yugi repeating the last three words back to Yugi. "Against this jar even Blue-Eyes White Dragon is useless! Choose your cards carefully Kaiba-kun!" Yugi advised. Jounouchi demanded to know why the young boy was giving out advice to the brunette that had nearly cost him his spot here. "Because Kaiba-kun is fighting to get back his precious Mokuba-kun! He can't lose no matter what!" Yugi admitted.

I couldn't help the small smile that graced my face at the seemingly bottomless depth of compassion that Yugi held, it was truly amazing how much of a pure and innocent soul this young boy possessed, Katherine also had a smile on her face as she rested her left hand on Yugi's shoulder so that he would calm down slightly.

"Yugi, I'll take your feelings into consideration but I trust in my cards," Seto insisted. I was somewhat surprised to see how much Seto's arrogance and stubbornness had diminished since I last saw him, he always had always been insistent on fighting his battles alone because that was how thick-headed he could be but now Seto's closed off heart was slowly being cracked open and it all began with the sweet little boy beside me and the mysterious spirit that dwelled within him.

Pegasus began the duel by laying a monster face down in defence mode and setting another face down card in the Spell and Trap zone however Seto wasn't about to let such a simple move stopped him from charging in head first and after setting a face down card in the Spell and Trap zone, he did this by summoning out Rude Kaiser in attack mode.

 **Rude Kaiser – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

Seto ordered Rude Kaiser to attack Pegasus' face down monster with its' Four Arm Slash, easily destroying the creature which was shown to be some kind of cartoon looking alligator which slightly confused me.

"Kaiba-boy's monster has one thousand, nine hundred attack points? That exceeds my monster's defence points by two hundred," Pegasus lamented. I wasn't buying that woe is me act for even one microsecond and it seemed that I was right because the next card Pegasus drew turned out to be strong enough to fight off Rude Kaiser, it was Parrot Dragon.

 **Parrot Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1300**

"Parrot Dragon attack," Pegasus ordered. The weird cartoon looking bird-dragon took flight and flew directly down towards Rude Kaiser however Seto flipped over his face down card to reveal that it was the Hypnotism Spell card which caused the Parrot Dragon to lose eight hundred points.

 **Parrot Dragon – ATK/2000 – ATK/1200**

As a result of the sudden deduction, Rude Kaiser was more than strong enough to destroy Parrot Dragon and thus Pegasus lost six hundred Life Points along with his second monster, however none of this sat right with any of us with Mai stating that Pegasus was so weak he couldn't counter anything.

 **Pegasus – LP: 2000 – LP: 1400**

"Yeah. It couldn't be…! That Pegasus…?" Jounouchi questioned. His question was directed at Yugi which rather surprised me as I didn't quite understand exactly what Jounouchi had to be getting at by asking an incomplete question to the young boy, fortunately Yugi cleared this up by confirmed that Pegasus had indeed done this same act to him during their own duel proving he took no one seriously at all, the fact that Yugi and Pegasus had duel was quite surprising since Pegasus rarely left the island.

I seriously hoped that Seto would catch on that something wasn't right about this whole duel however it seemed that he hadn't and attempted to summon out another monster however Pegasus stopped him by activating the Trap card known of Prognostication which allowed him to guess if the attack power of the card was more or less than two thousand and if he was right Seto relinquished it.

"I predict that it has more than two thousand, big!" Pegasus predicted. You didn't need magic to know that Pegasus had 'guessed' correctly as Seto's face said it all, the shocked and horrified look proved that Pegasus was indeed correct. "But that is not enough to prove this. I'll predict further details, that card has three thousand attack points and is your most trusted card, Blue-Eyes White Dragon," Pegasus carried on.

He did a really good job of pretending that he was seeing some kind of vision and Seto had become even more shocked but the worst thing was the anger that was brewing inside of him and as a result of Prognostication Seto was forced to hand the card over to Pegasus which was done through the podiums.

"Well then, this card is now mine," Pegasus mocked. Seto's entire form was beginning to shake with anger and I suspected that now he would be beginning to suspect that something was indeed wrong with the whole duel. "How's it feel Kaiba-boy, your most trusted card stolen, I mean," Pegasus mocked again.

Pegasus was playing with fire and he knew it as well but simply didn't care about that at all, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Pegasus decided to take the other two remaining Blue-Eyes that Seto had; actually that was probably what Pegasus was intending to do since this action would only break Seto's spirit more than it already was.

"This turn I'll just switch Rude Kaiser to defence mode and it's finished," Seto informed. He did as such and so Pegasus' turn came around once again however instead of summoning out Blue-Eyes like I would have expected, he instead simply set a monster in face down defence mode and another card face down in the Spell and Trap zone.

Seto make his move by summoning out Saggi the Dark Clown in attack mode with a face down card in the Spell and Trap zone, all of us who had seen Seto's duel against Other Yugi knew that the face down card was most likely Deck Destruction Virus which caused the others to be happy.

 **Saggi the Dark Clown – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 3, ATK/600, DEF/1500**

"No! It won't work, Pegasus saw through it!" Yugi called out. His warning had stopped the happiness that others had be feeling and I knew that Yugi was right, whatever magic the Millennium Eye held it obviously allowed Pegasus to see his opponent's hand which meant Seto might as well be showing his hand willingly.

"Then I'll activate my face down Spell card and the card is Dark Energy Generator," Pegasus declared. Seto was shocked by this sudden turn of events especially since Dark Energy Generator doubled the attack points of all Dark Attribute monsters on the field and since Deck Destruction could only be hosted by those with less than one thousand attack points it meant that the Trap couldn't be activated.

 **Saggi the Dark Clown – ATK/600 – ATK/1200**

With the danger of the deadly virus out of the way, Pegasus began to make his real move by Flip Summoning the monster he had face down which turned out to be the monster known as Dark Rabbit and it was another cartoonish looking monster.

 **Dark Rabbit – Attribute: Dark, Type: Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1100, DEF/1500**

 **Dark Rabbit – ATK/1100 – ATK/2200**

With the increase in attack power, Dark Rabbit was able to destroy Saggi with ease however I knew something that the others obviously hadn't seen because despite how cunning this move may had seen, there was one was could have effectively ended this duel here and now.

 **Seto: LP: 2000 – LP: 1000**

"He could have won," I spoke. Everyone turned to look at me completely confused but all I did was ball my hands into fists as they shook with barely restrained anger. "Pegasus has Blue-Eyes and if he had summoned her instead of activating Dark Energy Generator, the difference of twenty-four hundred points would have meant his victory even if the Trap was sprung but he didn't and that's because he's just messing with Seto," I growled.

Now that I had explained myself everyone understood and they seemed just as angry as I was about this whole thing, I seriously hoped that Seto would find some way to start fighting back against the powers that Pegasus' Millennium Eye afforded him but whether it would change how this duel turned out was all up to fate.


	23. Chapter 23

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you Atarya QueenofEgypt for your review, the story is following the anime, it's only the years that connected to the Manga such as Duelist Kingdom being in 1996.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 23: - Champion vs. Creator (II)

I was beginning to worry about Seto, his Blue-Eyes had been stolen and his Deck Destruction combo halted in its' tracks with him being reduced to half of his Life Points after only one attack, Pegasus' Millennium Eye was even more dangerous than I had thought possible and I was starting to believe only the bearer of another Millennium Item would be capable of stopping him.

"That power… Pegasus is reading Kaiba-kun's mind," Yugi muttered. Mai and Michael obviously didn't believe in what Yugi had said but since the others had first-hand experience with the Millennium Items, they were far more believing of this fact than they would have been otherwise with Jounouchi questioning if Pegasus was unbeatable.

"I wouldn't count Seto out of this duel just yet. You don't becoming World Champion without leaning quite the comeback tricks," Kylie commented. That was quite an accurate fact but I didn't know how Seto would be able to make such a comeback when magic was in the mix which Seto had no experience, or knowledge for that fact, on how to combat it.

Seto was still struggling with the fact that Pegasus had seen through several of his moves and he was obviously worried about exactly how Pegasus was capable of seeing his hand, Seto drew a card from his deck but he simply played a monster in face down defence position obviously not having any card that could combat Dark Rabbit available.

"Then it's my turn. Say Kaiba-boy… do you like cartoons?" Pegasus asked. The only response he got from Seto was a cold, hard stare but this didn't stop Pegasus from going off on a tangent about an old cartoon centred on a rabbit known as Funny Rabbit, I was starting to wonder if Pegasus had hit his head or if he had too much sugar recently.

"So what?!" Seto yelled. It was rather obvious that Seto had gotten tired of listening to Pegasus fawn over a TV show however Pegasus soon informed Seto that, those cartoons would never betray him confusing the World Champion. "What are you getting at?" Seto questioned. He was obviously hoping for some kind of straight answer but it was highly doubtful he'd get one given how eccentric Pegasus was being.

"And they can never die… I'll invite you to their world! My card is… Toon World" Pegasus revealed. He played the card but I had never even heard of such a card before and from the sounds of it neither had anyone else, the card took the appearance of a pop-up children's book, Honda also pointed out that Dark Rabbit had pull a Houdini on us since it had vanished from the field.

"Where did your Dark Rabbit go?" Seto questioned. However Pegasus explained that Dark Rabbit had gone inside of Toon World and that all of Pegasus' monsters had become Toons as a result of him summoning out the Toon World card.

Pegasus then ordered Dark Rabbit to attack Seto's face down monster which turned out to be Minotaur and thanks to the Dark Energy Generator, Dark Rabbit was strong enough to destroy Minotaur and then the deranged rabbit disappeared back into Toon World and the book snapped shut with Pegasus explaining that no attacks could reach the Toons within the book so long as the book remained close.

"No way!" Anzu protested. Yugi stated that now Seto was incapable of retaliating against the Toon monsters and due to the appearance of this seemingly unknown super card, Seto's chances of actually winning this duel had shrunk even more than I thought possible.

The only move Seto made during his turn was to place one card face down and so Pegasus took over with him deciding to show off more of Toon World's magic utilising Blue-Eyes as a guinea pig and so to start off with this move, Pegasus summoned the radiant creature out onto the field.

 **Blue-Eyes White Dragon – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

Not even a second later, the book of Toon World floated above Blue-Eyes' head and pink smoke spilled out wrapping around Blue-Eyes and proceeded to suck her into the book which then snapped shut only to spin into the air and open moments later unleashing the pink smoke again which let out a miniature version of Blue-Eyes that Pegasus called Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon.

 **Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon/Toon, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

"My… my Blue-Eyes," Seto lamented. However Pegasus didn't see – or he did and was enjoying it way too much – the effect this change had on Seto as he went on to claim that with all of his monsters becoming Toons and that the transformation had made Blue-Eyes more loveable than before.

"What's going on? Kaiba's Blue-Eyes…!" Jounouchi commented. Yugi admitted that was the power of Toon World although if I had to be completely honest, I kind of thought that Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon did looked a little cute… but I'm not stupid enough to say that out loud with Seto in hearing distance.

"Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon attack the Rude Kaiser!" Pegasus commanded. Unlike its' more majestic form, the Toon didn't unleash a stream of white energy instead its' belly puffed and then a ball of purple energy was sent swarming out which destroyed Rude Kaiser, it was simply fortunate that Seto had his monsters in defence mode.

"Pegasus… it seems you already know what cards are in my hand… if that's the case I'll discard my entire hand," Seto announced. He then folded the rest of the cards that were in his hand and he practically threw them down onto the podium with a loud snap sound echoing. "I'm going to play the first card I draw from my deck. In other words, even I won't know what it will be and it'll be on the field in attack mode," Seto explained.

That was a very risky move as now Seto would have to start playing with his heart far more than his head which he had never done before, I just hoped that Seto's intentions got through to his deck and that he would be able to bring out a monster that would ensure this warped Blue-Eyes was defeated and so was the man controlling it.

Seto picked up the top card and put all of his faith into it, when Seto played the card, low and behold it turned out to be another Blue-Eyes White Dragon surprising all of us, even Pegasus himself. Seto's deck had obviously responded to his belief and given him exactly the card he needed with Mai believing that it was simply a lucky draw but naturally we knew differently, Seto then ordered his Blue-Eyes to attack the Toon however before the attack hit, the Toon… stretched?

Everyone else seemed just as confused as I was with Mai confirming that the Toon had indeed stretched out of the way thus avoiding the Burst Stream attack with Pegasus taunting Seto over the fact that none of his Toons would be hit by any of Seto's attacks so long as Toon World was out, which was severely worrying since this meant that there was limited ways for Seto to actually damage Pegasus' Life Points.

"That means he can't defeat any of the Toons," Yugi worried. This caused Jounouchi to claim that Toon World wasn't fair since it seemed to be a super card that no one had ever heard of with Mai turning to me, Yugi and Kylie for any answers concerning the knowledge of Toon World.

"Vaguely. I remember it being brought up at a meeting my father brought me to but since it was so powerful it was never put into circulation making that one that Pegasus has, the only copy in the whole world," Kylie answered. Well… that did nothing but make me worry even more, a card too powerful to be put into circulation, I had known they existed but I had never actually seen one being used in a duel before.

With Seto's attack unsuccessful the reigns of this duel returned to Pegasus but I had to wonder exactly how the Millennium Eye worked, did it really just let you see through your opponent's eyes or was it something more along the lines of reading your opponent's mind, which ever one it followed would make the limits or lack of limits rather clear but I would only know that by dueling Pegasus myself or if Kylie got to face him.

"My turn, I'll play this card," Pegasus called out. The pop up buildings, which currently resembled a haunted town, were soon transformed into a pure white gleaming castle with light being reflected off of it making me wish I had something to cover my eyes at that particular moment. "Shine Castle, a new page in Toon World! A Light attribute monster receives a power up of five hundred points," Pegasus explained.

Seto was determined to believe that this wouldn't be the end of the duel but Pegasus disagreed and then in order to demonstrate its' increase in power, the biceps of the Toon dragon bulged upwards and turned into volcanos which ended up exploding in the end one after the other.

 **Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon – ATK/3000 – ATK/3500**

"Pegasus' Toon Dragon… has more attack points that Kaiba's Blue-Eyes!" Mai exclaimed. Those words were kind of redundant but to be honest the current power difference would only be bad if the face down card that Seto played a while back wasn't something that would allow his Blue-Eyes to survive the oncoming attack.

Pegasus ordered the attack and the purple energy was sent surging toward Seto's dragon however it seemed that fortune was on Seto's side as he flipped over the face down card which turned out to be the Trap card Attack Nullification which cancelled the attack before it hit Blue-Eyes and forcibly ended the Battle Phase meaning that Seto had another chance to defeat that Toon.

Seto reached out to his deck but he faltered shortly before his fingers touched the cards and I knew that he was thinking about Mokuba, he always was concerned with looking after Mokuba more than anything, soon Seto regained himself and he reached out towards his deck and drew a card which I really hoped would help him out of this mess.

"My card is… Curse of Darkness!" Seto declared. The Spell card caused chains to surge out and they wrapped around Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon ensnaring it and thus preventing the creature from being able to use its' Toon abilities to dodge any of the attacks that Seto chose to launch whilst also weakening the miniature dragon by seven hundred points.

 **Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon – ATK/3500 – ATK/2800**

"Curse of Darkness stops the enemy from moving and decreases their attack by seven hundred points. Even your Toon can't move once bound by this Spell! Prepare yourself, Burst Stream of Destruction!" Seto commanded. The dragon unleashed its' stream of energy and the Toon struggled fruitless within its' chains desperate to escape from the attack, Burst Stream hit the Toon thus destroying it and finally dealing some more damage to Pegasus' Life Points.

 **Pegasus – LP: 1400 – LP: 1200**

Everyone was happy that Seto had succeeded in stopping that demented Toon with Mai being impressed that Seto had actually managed to pull of such a move despite all the odds being against them but I knew when one believed in their deck then anything was possible as shown by Seto here.

"Blue-Eyes, I couldn't let you live as a pathetic Toon! I've put you out of your misery," Seto spoke. The torture in his voice was completely understandable if I had to destroy even a single card in my deck I would be suffering through the same torture as I cherished each and every card especially Athena.

"Thank you Kaiba-boy. Right now I felt love for your Blue-Eyes in your heart, as the Duel Monsters creator I feel very complimented. But… that love for your Blue-Eyes will be the trigger for your defeat," Pegasus mocked. I was getting really angered by his mocking tone especially since him of all people should know what it meant to treasure something so important but then again, he might not truly understand at all.

Pegasus drew a card and revealed it to be the Trap card Yugi had warned Seto about, the Pot of Dragon-Tribe Sealing and he immediately activated it which was the worst possible thing to have happened since now any and all Dragon-type monsters would be immediately sucked into the Pot preventing Seto from being able to bring out his third Blue-Eyes for fear of this happening again.

I was pretty sure that when Pegasus and Seto next met each other, Seto would make sure that Pegasus would have hell to pay for stealing Mokuba's soul, three of this Blue-Eyes once and then to steal two of them again during a duel, Seto could get very scary when his Blue-Eyes were taken from him and with the whole Mokuba and Kaiba Corporation debacle still in the air I wouldn't be surprised if Seto almost killed Pegasus.

Seto proceeded to draw from his deck however the expression on his face told us all that the card he had drawn wouldn't help him in this scenario and so he simply played the monster in face down defence mode thus allowing Pegasus to take over the duel once more.

"It's my turn. I place this card face down also the Jar Djinn in defence mode," Pegasus responded. I swallowed thickly due to the Jar Djinn's Special Effect which, when in attack mode, would allow it to draw Blue-Eyes out of the Sealing Pot and place the beast under its' and by extension Pegasus' control.

 **Jar Djinn – Attribute: Fire, Type: Pyro, Level: 3, ATK/200, DEF/1800**

To make things worse for himself Pegasus taunted that once he had Blue-Eyes under his control he was intending on making this one a Toon just like he did to the previous one, these taunts would only serve to rile Seto even more than he already was.

"This can only go so well," Kylie commented. I had to agree with Kylie, Seto had to bring out a monster that would be able to defeat the Jar Djinn otherwise he would be in big trouble next turn however Pegasus' face down card could be something that might prevent Seto from destroying Jar Djinn but with Seto's hand folded, he was only allowed to draw one card per turn unless he used a Spell card to increase the number of cards he got.

'This is it, the fate of this duel will be riding on Seto's next draw.' I thought. I couldn't help but clasp my hands together allowing my golden clad right fingers to be more visible but nobody noticed as they were all too focused on the duel to watch me.

"You bastard! I'll crush that measly Jar Djinn first. Sword Stalker! Attack! Turn that Jar Djinn into pieces!" Seto called out. The creature appeared on the field and thanks to its' attack power it would be able to destroy the pipe playing monster however I was still deeply concerned by that face down card.

 **Sword Stalker of Revenge – Attribute: Dark, Type: Warrior, Level: 6, ATK/2000 DEF/1600**

Seto declared the attack however Pegasus flipped over his face down to reveal that it was a Spell that he called Copycat and thanks to the power of this card it was able to turn into any card that had been played during the course of the duel, including the inactivated Deck Destruction Virus which Pegasus then infected Jar Djinn with.

"Pegasus made the virus holder Jar Djinn! Don't attack Kaiba-kun!" Yugi exclaimed. Unfortunately Seto couldn't do that because it was too late for Seto to call off the attack and so this completely decimated Seto's deck since he had always packed it with every powerful monster he could find which had proven to be his undoing in this duel.

"This is the only card I've got left… Resurrection of the Dead! I use this card to revive Saggi the Dark Clown," Seto spoke. It was the only move he had left to make and Pegasus knew it, all he needed to do was destroy Saggi which would render this duel finished and Seto would automatically lose by default.

"I praise your ability to play out this game to the very end. If I should defeat that card on my next turn, I shall win!" Pegasus mocked. He then commanded a creature known as Devil Box to come out and it came from inside of Toon World.

This monster looked like a demented jack in the box kind of toy with a beaked monster at the end of the spring and it ended up digging into its' mouth to retrieve a rather large scythe that looked in rather good condition for it being stored inside of a mouth.

 **Devil Box: - Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 7, ATK/2300, DEF/2000**

Pegasus ordered Devil Box to attack, destroying Saggi and ending the duel however as if humiliating Seto wasn't enough for him, Pegasus retrieved a blank card which looked too much like the one Mokuba was imprisoned in and then proceeded to use his Millennium Eye to take Seto's soul and seal it away in the card.

"Kaiba-kun… Kaiba-kun fought with his life on the line in order to save Mokuba-kun! He's no different from us, trying to protect those important to him! Pegasus! You… you have no right to take away what is precious to us!" Yugi declared. Tears were prickling at the corners of his eyes and yet his face held such a fierce expression which was rather surprising given his nature but I completely understood the feeling as I was dealing with the same thing, suddenly a glow appeared from the Puzzle and Other Yugi appeared.

"Pegasus! I'll defeat you with my own hands!" Other Yugi believed. Pegasus remined him that he had to get passed the remaining duelists for even the opportunity to face off against Pegasus "I know that! But you'd better prepare yourself! My anger won't submit until I've beaten you!" Other Yugi declared. Pegasus then declared that the final round of this tournament had officially begun.

I felt a heavy pressure on my tongue and my eyes immediately darted to Kylie who had small bursts of white lightning darting around her fingertips as a murderous light shone in her eye; luckily no one had noticed yet so I immediately snapped my hand around hers causing her to look at me and I sent her a look basically telling her not to reveal that little secret of ours, she had always pounded it into me so I would remind her of that when she nearly lost control.

Returning my gaze to Pegasus I allowed my lips to twist into a frown, there would be no stopping this madman until he was finally beaten and I'd ensure that happened even if I had to do it with my own two hands.


	24. Chapter 24

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you Atarya QueenofEgypt for your review.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 24: - A Desperate Situation

After Pegasus' victory over Seto, we were all escorted to a dining room where the man that stormed off earlier was already waiting with a rich spread of food already laid out, we took seats with Jounouchi and Honda swiftly digging into the food but this had the effect of slightly putting me off of my own food and so I instead poured a glass of water.

"Please enjoy yourselves and prepare for the tournament tomorrow. Please help yourselves, we have prepared you all a special meal in celebration. Now then I have something I must address with you all. You will be required to have one of these cards you received in your invitation during the final tournament tomorrow," Crocketts informed. All of us were confused by this so Crocketts held up two cards one card that was covered in glittering riches and the other card was blank of all details.

These cards were known as the Glory of the King's Right and Glory of the King's Left respectively, the competitors would need at least one of these card in order to enter the final stage of the tournament with the first necessary to claim the cash prize whilst the second allowed the individual to challenge Pegasus.

"And one more thing, please look down at the soup that we have prepared for you," Crocketts mentioned. We all looked down and then a golden eyeball floated up to the surface causing others to freak out whilst a sweat drop formed on my forehead however I then reached out and cracked open the eyeball so the other finalists – who were the only ones with eyeballs – followed suit.

Inside the eye was a piece of paper with the letter E printed on it, the letters were used to determine who we would duel against in the finals which was displayed on a board, the matches were assigned as A vs. B, C vs. D, E vs. F and G vs. H. These matches translated into Mai vs. Yugi, Keith vs. Jounouchi, me vs. Michael and Katherine vs. the other guy who was known as Jack Cross.

"A BRAT! Well this won't be a hard duel, I'm getting some sleep," Cross yelled. He then stood up and stormed off, I looked at Katherine to find that she hadn't even heard, or hadn't acknowledged, her opponent's crass comment. With Cross' departure, the rest of us continued the meal in peace after learning that the quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals and the match against Pegasus would all be held tomorrow.

"Jounouchi-kun, Kylie-san, Katherine-chan, we have to win Pegasus' tournament! ," Yugi suggested once the meal was over. It was such an unnecessary statement but that didn't stop the smile splitting my face at the fact that the boy included me and my sister within the sentence, however since Jounouchi didn't possess either of the Glory cards needed he was seriously upset so in order to resolve this fact, Yugi gave him Glory of the King's Right and with that out of the way we all headed to bed.

I said my goodnights to everyone and stepped into my room glad to have the opportunity to sleep in a proper bed but first I closed the curtains to prevent any moonlight seeping into the room and changed into the sleeping clothes that I had brought with me, with that done I led down to sleep.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

 _My eyes fluttered open as I glanced around only to find that I was in a completely black room with small pinpricks of light dotted about making it appear as if I was floating in outer space, I stood to my feet and looked around finding nothing but darkness in all directions._

" _The time is coming," An airy voice whispered. I whipped around trying to find the source of the voice but there was no one around except for me and I had no idea who that voice belonged to anyway which was beginning to worry me quite a bit._

" _The time is coming Consort," The voice whispered again. This time I decided to stay still as looking for the voice frantically wouldn't do me any good and I hoped the voice would reveal themselves. "The time is coming Consort for you to face your destiny," The voice came but much stronger and from behind me._

 _I whipped around to face this person however the only thing I saw was a white light that slowly got bigger and bigger until I was blinded by it._

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

I startled awake from that nightmare, I had been suffering from the thing for a month and each time it ended the same way, it was almost as if whoever was talking to me wouldn't allow me to see who they really were and blinded me each time to force me to wake up.

The strange thing was that the voice always called me Consort and I didn't know why considering I wasn't married to any royalty nor did I even know any royalty so why on earth would the voice refer to me as that, I stood up from the bed and walked over to the window gently pulling aside the curtain and leaning my forehead against the chilled glass.

'Why did it say I must face my destiny?' I thought. I was scared that I was losing my mind with everything happening and at that moment I glanced down at my bracelet which never left my wrist. 'Ever since that day nothing has been the same for me or Katherine.' I thought. I pushed off the glass and slipped back into the bed hoping to get some kind of sleep tonight.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

The next day had dawned and whilst I had indeed managed to get some sleep, that nightmare still lingered within my mind and I was rather distracted as I shuffled my deck in an attempt to keep me calm, suddenly a knock on the door echoed through the room.

"Come in," I called. The door opened to reveal Katherine, Other Yugi, Jounouchi and their friends waiting for me, I turned my head back to my deck and slipped it into its' pouch. "That time already," I commented. Other Yugi nodded to symbolise that I was right and so we left my room and walked towards the duel arena.

Before we went in we had to part ways with the other three going to the higher balcony whilst the four of us who were duelists went to the lower level where the other four were already waiting for us to arrive and then the doors before us opened up and so we stepped in, directly across from us was another balcony with a high back chair and on that side came Pegasus.

"Welcome proud duelists to this sacred dueling battlefield the Duelist Kingdom Championship Tournament shall now commence! The one who survives the tournament shall be granted a prize deserving of a champion! And of course, the winner shall earn the right to challenge me," Pegasus spoke.

Honda questioned exactly what that person would win if they did indeed succeed in defeating Pegasus with Pegasus explaining that not only would they be granted one request that if he had the power to do it would but done but that whoever did would be the uncontested number one duelist in the world with Mai being rather confident that it would be her.

With the opening speech out of the way, the first duel began with Mai and Other Yugi head towards the duel arena however instead of staying where we were, me, Katherine and Jounouchi decided to head up to the other balcony in order to get a better view of the action with our sudden appearance scaring the others.

'Mai said she'll give Other Yugi an honourable duel however that won't mean much if Yugi can't get over his fear of what happened during the duel with Seto, I can only hope that he managed to work something out by now.' I thought.

 **Mai – LP: 2000**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

"What's wrong Mai? Aren't you going to use those special 'Aroma Tactics'?" Other Yugi questioned and teased. Mai claimed that she wasn't going to need them against her current opponent or rather as she vowed, she wouldn't use them against Other Yugi, and as per her opening move, she summoned out Harpie Lady.

 **Harpie Lady – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400**

The others shouted down advice to Other Yugi although Jounouchi reassured them that given the amount of times that Yugi had seen Harpie Lady in a duel, he knew exactly what was coming however there was a slight problem with that, Mai knew how many times Yugi had seen her duel using Harpie Lady.

"Exactly, which mean Mai is going to change it up in order to keep Yugi from predicting her moves," I spoke up. Jounouchi looked at me but I didn't bother to return it as Mai slid a face down card into the Spell and Trap zone thus handing the duel to Other Yugi for now.

Other Yugi drew from his deck and immediately proceeded to summon out Gaia the Dark Knight however contrary to what he normally did, such as being cautious, Other Yugi instead commanded Gaia to attack Harpie Lady as if Other Yugi had completely forgotten about the face down card.

 **Gaia the Dark Knight – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 7, ATK/2300, DEF/2100**

"Trap card activate, Silver-Screen Mirror Wall," Mai revealed. As Gaia charged forward a wall of reflective crystals rose up in front of Harpie Lady causing Gaia's spear to strike the crystals and cracks of light ended up coursing across his body the minute the attack connected.

"Silver-Screen Mirror Wall is a Trap card that halves the attack points of a monster that attacks it. The moment you attack this mirror appears to stop your assault and after attacking the reflection of itself in the mirror, the attacking monster will have its' attack split in half," Mai explained. That was a very dangerous trap and Other Yugi would need to think of a way around Mirror Wall.

 **Gaia the Dark Knight – ATK/2300 – ATK/1150**

With the failure of Other Yugi's attack, Mai began to fight back by making another of her standard moves which was to equip Harpie Lady with Cyber Bondage which raised the winged beast's attack power so that her attack power was now above Gaia's.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1300 – ATK/1800, DEF/1400 – DEF/1900**

"Get going Harpie Lady, Cyber Slash," Mai commanded. The creature flew forward and with her sharpened claws easily torn through the weakened horseman and causing Other Yugi to lose quite a few of his Life Points in the process.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1350**

"Yugi, I didn't think you'd fall for something so obvious. Now it's your turn Yugi," Mai commented. Her words cause me to realise something very important, Yugi was holding back in this duel but not his dueling skill instead he was holding back his other side so as to make sure that he couldn't attempt to hurt Mai like how he almost hurt Seto, Other Yugi laid a card face down and then brought out Demon's Summon and ordered another attack.

 **Demon's Summon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 6, ATK/2500, DEF/1200**

"Wait Yugi, Mirror Wall's a perme-," I tried to warn. However my warning came too late as the reflective crystals once more rose up, thus blocking the attack and reducing the attack points of Other Yugi's monster by half once again.

 **Demon's Summon – ATK/2500 – ATK/1250**

"I get it! A **Permeant** Trap," Other Yugi realised. Sadly it was a little too late for that given the current predicament and Other Yugi had to quickly find some way of destroying Mirror Wall, also he had to get his mind focused on the game instead of dividing his attention the way he currently was, especially since none of us could help him with that problem.

"What's wrong with Yugi-kun" Bakura wondered. Jounouchi had also noticed that something was wrong about the scenario as he commented that unlike normal, Other Yugi wasn't thinking through any of his moves with the others being really concerned out their friend as well but it wasn't like any of us could do anything since Yugi and his other half had to sort this out by themselves.

"Will Yugi be ok?" Katherine asked. I looked at my little sister but didn't answer her because I had absolutely no idea myself, Mai then commented that whilst Other Yugi's body was here, his mind and his heart weren't, which meant that he wouldn't give all that he had in this duel and this did have the effect of angering Other Yugi.

"You disappoint me. To think the duelist I've admired for so long was only at this level… I can clearly see it. From the moment you stepped into the Duel Ring, you've been crushed by an invisible pressure! When duelists face each other in battle, they can feel their fighting aura but I'm not feeling that aura from you right now!" Mai informed. The blonde woman was right, perhaps the effects of Seto's near suicide stunt had shaken Yugi and the spirit more than any of us realised and Katherine's words hadn't fully reached him yet.

"Are you trying to say you can't feel any fight in me?" Other Yugi questioned. Mai agreed with the words that had been spoken and even accused her opponent of only thinking about facing off against Pegasus which caused my eyes to widened in response to those words as Mai claimed that Other Yugi was currently acting like an arrogant boy rather than a strong man since he was looking right passed the woman currently opposing him.

Other Yugi was surprised by this almost as if he didn't even consider such a variable causing him to look at the man holding the soul of his host's grandfather hostage but he then returned his attention to his current opponent and demand she talk after the woman had beaten him but Mai wasn't impressed by this.

Sadly the others didn't seem to realise that Mai was actually trying to help Yugi refocus his attention and actually get his head into the game with Jounouchi encouraging Yugi to not let Mai get to him anymore, but they had to realise that fact for themselves as I wasn't going to tell them and I knew that neither would Katherine tell them this.

"Now I'm **seriously** angry Mai," Other Yugi snapped. Seeing how Other Yugi was acting caused me to frown, the complex and alluring mystery of him that had drawn me in was being destroyed because he wasn't focusing so I was losing interest in him, Mai had decided to stop talking and return to the duel which she did by using Harpie's Feather Duster to sweep away Other Yugi's trap which had been Curse of Hexagram although she didn't attack afterwards.

Other Yugi did the smart thing on his turn and switched his Demon's Summon into defence mode whilst playing another monster in face down defence mode as well, until he could successfully destroy Mirror Wall this was the best thing that he could do for the time being.

"You stand no chance of winning if you're trapped like that! My turn, I use the equipment card Rose Whip to increase Harpie Lady's attack points," Mai declared. With this attack power, Mai's Harpie Lady was becoming stronger and soon it might actually be capable of taking on Other Yugi's Black Magician which wasn't a pleasing thought in the least.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1800 – ATK/2100, DEF/1900 – DEF/2200**

"I'll start by attacking that defence monster. Whip Lash attack," Mai commanded. Rose Whip flew out and impacted onto the hidden monster easily destroying it, it was simply fortunate that the monster had been in defence mode which left Other Yugi's Life Points untouched although I was concerned that Mai might have a card to stop the defensive play.

The others continued to encourage Other Yugi with Jounouchi warning that Mai could attempt to use Kaleidoscope to multiply her Harpie's just like in her duel with Jounouchi however I was beginning to doubt that Other Yugi would actually be able to turn this duel around since he obviously wasn't trying as hard as he could in the duel.

"My turn, with this card my Harpie Combo is seventy percent complete. Even though it's not complete yet, this is more than enough to beat you! Here I go, Yugi! This is Harpie's strongest servant," Mai revealed. Spews of fire rose up as the monster was summoned which turned out to be Harpie's Pet Dragon which would only cause more problems for Other Yugi due to the fact that for every Harpie Lady that was on the field, Harpie's Pet Dragon gained an extra three hundred attack and defence points.

 **Harpie's Pet Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2000, DEF/2500**

 **Harpie's Pet Dragon – ATK/2000 – ATK/2300, DEF/2500 – DEF/2800**

Mai immediately had her newly summoned Dragon destroy Demon's Summon thus wiping out Other Yugi's defence and if Mai did indeed succeed in multiplying her Harpies then that was it for this duel because Other Yugi wouldn't be able to combat anything that Mai had on the field especially with a supercharged dragon waiting for any of his monsters.

"Yugi… there's something you lost sight of and until you find that answer, you stand no chance of beating me! Back when I fought against Jounouchi, he asked me a riddle. Yugi, now it's time for me to direct that riddle at you. It's something you see, but can't see! Yugi, I wonder if you can find the answer to that," Mai asked.

"Something you see but can't see?" Other Yugi repeated. This caused Jounouchi to begin yelling at Mai that those words were basically the same as the ones that Jounouchi asked her then demanded if the woman even had the answer to the question herself.

"I do Jounouchi. Because of you, I've come up with my own answer," Mai shot back. Jounouchi stated he'd answer in Yugi's place and claimed it was the spirit of friendship whilst hugging himself which caused those with him on the balcony to shoot him weirded out looks. "Idiot! That's incorrect," Mai responded. This caused Jounouchi to end up face planting into the railing of the bannister causing me to smirk and Katherine to smile.

"My answer's not such a cliché," Mai commented. Sadly Jounouchi got riled up by the last word and began to demand what the correct answer was, so much so that he almost ended up falling off of the balcony but fortunately, me and Honda had managed to lunge forward in time to grab his legs and we hauled him back up onto the balcony where Anzu gave him a severe telling off.

Mai stared up at Jounouchi with a soft look within her eyes, she then caught my gaze as it flickered between her and the disappointment that was dueling against her and Mai's eyes widened before narrowing again as her lips twisted into a frown, I wondered if she knew how much I was interested in the boy or if me being upset had simply angered the woman.

The duel resumed with Other Yugi drawing a card which he then proceeded to play in defence mode revealing that it was Black Magician however with Mirror Wall still up, attacking was too much of risk and one that Other Yugi seriously couldn't afford to take although he did throw down a face down card.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

"My turn, my next card is the equipment card Shadow of Seduction!" Mai announced. However Other Yugi was confused and so was I although we soon learned that the Shadow of Seduction was a Spell card had forced Black Magician into attack mode and as such it caused Mirror Wall to rise up causing the point deduction again.

 **Black Magician – ATK/2500 – ATK/1250**

To make things worse, as Mai explained, so long as Shadow of Seduction was on the field then all of Other Yugi's monsters would be forced into attack mode which would severely deplete his Life Points in a matter of turns, after using Harpie's Feather Duster to removed Mirror Force from the field, Mai then ordered Harpie's Pet Dragon to attack Black Magician, destroying the Spellcaster.

 **Yugo – LP: 1350 – LP: 300**

'This is bad, you damned spirit, you need to get focused on this duel before you lose and soon if you want to have any chance of saving Yugi's grandfather.' I thought.


	25. Chapter 25

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **To Speaking-the-Truth16, if you do not find enjoyment in being on Fanfiction or you do not have anything that had contribute to the writers on Fanfiction, kindly LEAVE, the writers are here to write and the reader are here to read, not listen to religious diatribe, kindly leave me alone and do not attempt this again otherwise I shall consider it abuse and report you, good day.**

 **Thank you 2kirschcherry for informing my about the mistake, I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy, I had to use the dubbed**

Chapter 25: - The Ultimate Legendary Soldier Descends

"Woah, Mai's really got Yugi on the ropes. She's brought him down to three hundred Life Points and she hasn't lost any. Who would have though she was this good? Could it be that it was just sheer dumb luck that I beat her before," Jounouchi wondered. I doubted that was the case whilst luck may have indeed been a factor in his victory over Mai it wasn't the only reason, Jounouchi was a much better duelist than most people realised.

I looked at Kylie and saw that her eyes were solely focused on Other Yugi with a saddened sheen in the orbs and I knew exactly why, ever since day one Kylie had been impressed with Other Yugi's skill which made her eager to duel him yet now it seemed that the talent he displayed had vanished simply because of how distracted Other Yugi was acting now that Pegasus was so close to him.

"It wasn't luck Jounouchi. I lost that duel to you because you knew something I didn't, I learned more from that duel than from any other I've ever played. It's true Jounouchi, I learned a lesson from you that day that I never really wanted to learn. I didn't know it then but it would change me and the way I looked at dueling, I had to take a hard look at myself and admit the reason I relied on tricks, was because I was afraid, afraid to trust in my own abilities, afraid to trust in myself. Like you trusted in yourself Jounouchi and facing up to that wasn't easy believe me," Mai responded.

Mai then asked if Jounouchi knew why he had made it all the way to the final round with the blonde boy answering that this was because all the friends he had come with backing him, even Kylie and myself had been cheering him on, which was kind of surprising but it was nice that he considered us friends after such a short period of actually knowing the two of us.

"That's true, that's very true. Your friends were with you all the way but you also had the guts to look inside and find the strength to focus on your goals. You looked at what you wanted to achieve and focused on achieving it, that's a lesson everyone should learn," Mai added on. Jounouchi was surprised by this but more importantly I noticed that Other Yugi was beginning to realise exactly what Mai was getting at with her speech.

Even if she didn't know all the details, Mai was attempted to get Other Yugi to focus on the enemy that he was currently facing because even if he did win this duel there were others waiting in the wings and this lack of focus wouldn't allow him to be victorious over them instead it would impede his ability to duel properly.

"She's losing interest Yugi," Mai called out. The mysterious spirit looked confused until Mai turned her head upwards to focus on the subject of the discussion which turned out to be my sister. "Since day one, Kylie-san's been looking forward to a match against you just like me, but seeing how you're acting now, Kylie-san's becoming disinterested, her goal is disappearing because you aren't focusing!" Mai accused.

Other Yugi closed his eyes and seemed to be struggling internally, I could only hope that the spirit would finally listen to what Mai was saying and maybe understand what Kylie was feeling, otherwise he would lose this duel and as a result Yugi would be unable to save his grandfather but if he did finally heed the warning that had been going about, he might be able to turn this duel around, then Other Yugi's head raised up.

"Mai thanks for reminding me that a true duelist faces his problems one at a time. You're right I wasn't focusing on you and I'm sorry for that but not any longer," Other Yugi declared. The question now was if it was too late for Other Yugi to turn this duel around or if he would be able to pull it off and successfully win this duel. "I play the Spell card Brainwashing – Brain Control," Other Yugi announced.

With the power of Brain Control, although for only one turn, Other Yugi was able to take control of Harpie's Pet Dragon although Mai claimed that the dragon would never think of attacking Harpie Lady however Other Yugi revealed that he never planned on attacking Harpie Lady and instead he summoned out Catapult Turtle along with playing a face-down card.

 **Catapult Turtle – Attribute: Water, Type: Aqua, Level: 5, ATK/1000, DEF/2000**

"Now let's put Harpie's Pet Dragon on the catapult in attack mode," Other Yugi suggest. The dragon nestled itself on the launch pad of Catapult Turtle and since an attack was called, Mirror Wall erected itself to block the attack however due to Catapult Turtle's effect it would be able to destroy Mirror Wall once and for all.

"Catapult launch!" Other Yugi ordered. Harpie's Pet Dragon was sent flying into the crystalline structure and it was forcibly blown apart by the impact preventing Mai was blocking any more of Other Yugi's attacks and the weakening of his monsters, this action truly shocked Mai as it seemed she was still struggling to understand it.

"And that's not all I've done Mai. My assault has accomplished more than to destroy the defence you built, because it was your monster I fired from Catapult Turtle, half of the Pet Dragon's attack points get deducted from your Life Points. The tide of this battle is turning Mai," Other Yugi explained. This revelation shocked Mai whist everyone else cheered for the fact that Other Yugi was finally making a comeback and I noticed Kylie's saddened gaze had vanished as well.

 **Mai – LP: 2000 – LP: 850**

It was a good move to start Other Yugi on the comeback and possible path to winning this duel but now more than ever he had to believe in himself and in his deck so that he would be able to draw out the cards that would win him this duel, another important part of the rest of this duel would be to deal with Shadow of Seduction since that card was the only thing keeping him from being able to protect himself.

The only problem right now was that it was currently Mai's turn and if she attacked Catapult Turtle then this duel was over however she had to be wary of the face down card Other Yugi had finished his turn with as without Harpie's Feather Duster on the field anymore Mai couldn't sweep it away and if that card was a Trap then Mai's Harpie could very well be destroyed.

Mai drew her card and all of us waited with baited breath as Mai examined the cards in her hand as she thought about whether or not to attack which was proving to be the hardest decision she had to make this entire duel, the tension was thick in the air as we waited for someone to say or do something.

"Bring on your assault Mai," Other Yugi tempted. This move would do one of three things either it would either back fire and blow up in Other Yugi's face, possibly activate the possible Trap he had hidden or cause Mai to not attack all together.

"Now I will… not attack. I'm not falling into you trap and there are other moves that I can make. For example, I can use this card to triple my Harpie attack force, I play Kaleidoscope - Magnificent Doppelgangers," Mai decided. She had faltered in the beginning but was more sure now as her Spell card brought out two more Harpie Ladies and increased their attack power, but slightly decreased the defence power, as a result.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/2100 – ATK/2450 , DEF/2200 – DEF/2100**

"That's too bad Mai, you really should have attacked me," Other Yugi informed. Mai believed that to simply be his opinion however Other Yugi soon revealed it was a fact as the face down card he had played had actually been a Monster Recovery Spell card and not a Trap like Mai had thought which allowed Other Yugi to call back his Catapult Turtle and draw a new hand.

However when Other Yugi drew his new hand, the expression on his face clearly showed that the hand he had drawn was not a good one and it probably didn't hold a monster strong enough to go up against any of the Harpie Ladies with Mai also noticing the expression that marred Other Yugi's face.

"Each of my three Harpie Ladies now has an attack power of twenty-four, fifty. There are only a handful of cards in all of Duel Monsters that can stand up to that and from the look on your face, you haven't drawn them," Mai mocked. Anzu practically screamed down her support which was annoying because since I was standing right next to her my ears started hurting as a result of the sudden shock of loud noise.

Other Yugi proceeded to summon out a monster yet he played it in face down defence mode which was confusing since that would made no difference as Shadow of Seduction would simply force the monster into attack mode with Mai reminding Other Yugi of this fact.

"All monsters? No Mai and that's what will save my Life Points this turn, Holy Elf!" Other Yugi retorted. The blue-skinned elf appeared on the field and as Other Yugi explained she was unaffected by Shadow of Seduction since the Spell only affected male monsters whilst the Holy Elf was a female and thus she remained in defence mode as a result.

 **Holy Elf – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 4, ATK/800, DEF/2000**

I had to admit that I practically slumped against Kylie's legs as the sense of relief that flooded through me was almost too much for me to remain standing but I did, Other Yugi had just managed to pull himself out of the hole he nearly dug for himself but now he would have to find a way from bring down Mai's Harpie Ladies.

"Ok so let's see where we stand. You're on the board with one measly elf and it's my turn, first I'll use this Resurrection of the Dead card to being back an old friend," Mai commented. It was quite obvious which monster she was bringing back as Harpie's Pet Dragon returned to the field and now with three Harpie's out, it's attack power was much more than any monster I knew of in Yugi's whole deck.

 **Harpie's Pet Dragon – ATK/2000 – ATK/2900, DEF/2500 – DEF/3400**

Kylie gritted her teeth and I didn't blame her especially when Mai ordered her Harpie Ladies to destroy Holy Elf thus eliminating any defence that Other Yugi had and unless he pulled off a miracle it was likely that Other Yugi would be losing this duel within the next few turns.

"Your time's run out Yugi, next turn I eliminate the remainder of your Life Points and then looks like I go on to the Semi-Finals," Mai bragged. Other Yugi reached out to his deck and drew the card that would practically decide whether or not this duel would end on this turn, I clasped my hands together again and really hoped that the card was something that would work, meanwhile Mai was bragging about taking down any card that he tossed out.

"Sealing Swords of Light!" Other Yugi announced. The glowing green swords descended and completely entrapped Mai's monsters preventing them from attacking for three turns which should hopefully give Other Yugi enough time to turn this duel around, Mai was completely shocked by the card that Other Yugi had drawn but nobody could really blame her for that.

"My only move for this turn, I play Kuriboh," Other Yugi declared. The fluffy little ball appeared on the field and this time I managed to restrain a squeak but I still smiled brightly at its' appearance; of course as with Seto, Mai didn't think much of Kuriboh even making a joke that none of us found funny.

 **Kuriboh – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 1, ATK/300, DEF/200**

"It's not funny Mai, laugh all you want but don't mistake the Kuriboh for a joke when its' an important step on my way to victory in this duel," Other Yugi reprimanded. Mai didn't seem to believe the duelist and since she couldn't really do anything for this turn she simply drew a card and passed.

I wondered exactly how Other Yugi planned to defeat Mai and if he really had a monster that was powerful enough to destroy Harpie's Pet Dragon, I noticed that he seemed to be concentrating really hard on the card that he had just drawn from his deck implying that he knew exactly which card he need but simply hadn't drawn it yet.

"Does Yugi have a chance of defeating that Dragon?" I asked. Kylie looked at me and then turned her eyes back to Other Yugi as she contemplated my question before turning her eyes back to face me with a concerned look on her face.

"I'm afraid that it might be tricky, we don't know all of Yugi's cards but the sad thing is that he might not even draw them. The only thing we can do now is wait," Kylie responded. I understood my sister and I truly hoped that Other Yugi would be able to get through this and succeed in winning, after all he had Yugi's grandfather to save and a promise to keep.

I had heard his and Kylie's little discussion on the first day we met and had been surprised at my sister since she had never shown such an interest in any other duelist before but now I could understand why she was so intrigued by him as I had also developed the same interest of course but whilst Kylie's duel attention was on the mysterious spirit, my attention was focused on the young boy who hosted the spirit.

"This card worked for you. I use Resurrection of the Dead to revive Gaia the Dark Knight," Other Yugi spoke. The horseman returned and I had to wonder why on earth Yugi had summoned him and not Black Magician or Demon's Summon who could have destroyed a Harpie Lady which would have weakened the Pet Dragon and taken some more of Mai's Life Points in the remaining two turns.

'I seriously hope that whatever plan you have in mind, it is able to pay off before Mai is capable of attacking you again.' I prayed. Mai wasn't impressed by the return of Gaia, although she did comment that it was an improvement over Kuriboh, and she simply skipped her turn once more after drawing a card and mocked him about how many turns he had left to complete his little plan.

"That'll be enough Mai," Other Yugi retorted. He reached out and drew another card from his deck however it seemed that this card wasn't the one he was searching for either and with so few turns left I was beginning to get worried however a hand clasped over my own trembling once and I saw Kylie give me a smile.

I decided to believe in my sister's faith and took a deep breath to calm my nerves as I returned to watching the duel with all of my attention and Other Yugi was forced to pass his turn as he couldn't make any moves that would affect the looming result of this duel.

"It's my turn now," Mai announced. She drew a card and a practically glowing look of glee crossed her face as she stared at the card however instead of doing anything with the card she simply passed the turn and so the swords of light faded away. "My turn is over as are the effects of your Swords of Sealing Light, didn't get much help out of your three free turns did you Yugi," Mai mocked.

Other Yugi reached out towards his deck however shortly before his fingers touched it they faltered as if he was beginning to regret some decision that he made and was berating himself for even considering this decision to begin with, the only thing I could guess was that Other Yugi was regretting putting so much weight on the result of a single draw.

The tension in the duel arena was thick as we waited for something to happen, eventually Other Yugi reached out and touched his deck drawing a card from it, and it was then that a sudden surge of power ripped through the entire arena but only myself, Kylie and Pegasus felt it.

Kylie's eyes widened whilst I wavered slightly from the incredibly power that had just washed over our bodies and the two on us shared one single look which proved neither of us had felt such a rush of power before and as I trained my eyes on Pegasus, his shocked expression confirmed the same thing and so I then turned my attention back to Other Yugi as he gazed at the card.

"Well Mai, you've put up a good fight but now the duel ends starting with this card Chaos Ritual," Other Yugi announced. He played the card bringing the ritual seen in the artwork onto the field however I was completely stunned that Other Yugi was attempting such a daring and risky move to begin with and that he had drawn the necessary card right when he needed it.

"No way!" Kylie exclaimed. I was as surprised as Kylie, no one had ever attempted the Chaos Ritual before and once Other Yugi succeeded then he would have a monster on his field that would easily overwhelm all of Mai's monsters, from the pots of the ritual came out purple smoke and it wrapped around both Gaia and Kuriboh drawing them into the pots with blue smoke surging upwards and twirling together.

"One soul shall merge with light, the other soul shall merge with the darkness. Between light and darkness, the gateway to chaos is opened!" Other Yugi announced. The centre piece of the ritual then raised up and from it shot forth a purple energy which then shifted into a mighty and fearsome warrior known as the Chaos Soldier.

 **Chaos Soldier – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior/Ritual, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

"Now Chaos Soldier, Chaos Blade attack!" Other Yugi commanded. The warrior unleashed a stream of yellow energy that flowed directly towards Mai's side of the field and her Harpie Ladies flocked upwards to avoid the attack however Harpie's Pet Dragon was still destroyed by the attack thus taking some of Mai's Life Points.

 **Mai – LP: 850 – LP: 750**

Everyone else was amazed by the fact that Other Yugi had summon out the creature that they didn't even notice that Mai was completely shell shocked by what had happened and she even slumped forward slightly as she stared at one card in particular in her hand, eventually Mai stood back up and she placed her hand over her deck.

"Mai so does this mean that you surrender?" Other Yugi asked to be sure. Jounouchi also realised exactly what this meant however Anzu had to ask despite what had just been said causing Kylie shoot the brunette girl a glare, neither Kylie nor Anzu had apologised for their actions but to be honest Anzu deserved the slap she got from Kylie for being so shallow minded.

"And how many duelists do you know? You're hopeless," Kylie hissed. Anzu glared at my sister and I knew that after Anzu's stupidity and Kylie's slap they would probably never be friends. "When a duelist puts their hand over their deck like Mai has it symbolises surrender," Kylie explained.

"I'd rather not see my Harpie Ladies destroyed in the next turn, the duel is yours Yugi," Mai responded. She then cleared up her cards as the holograms faded away and then she turned around to leave although Other Yugi thanked Mai for what she had taught him today and Mai admitted she still had a lot to learn and promised to meet again, she then walked off down the tunnel.


	26. Chapter 26

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 26: - Cruel Heavy Metal Deck

"The first round of the tournament Muto Yugi VS. Kujaku Mai, the winner is Muto Yugi. He advances to the next round," Crocketts announced. A screen showing the contest appeared above the arena with Mai's picture being blacked out to show her elimination, Other Yugi reverted to Yugi and then Pegasus began to clap.

"Congratulations Yugi-boy. That was a splendid duel," Pegasus complimented. Of course none of us, least of all Yugi, took it that way although we were all swiftly distracted as Jounouchi's match was up right now and he seemed a little nervous with Honda not really helping him to feel any better by teaching him a method to calm himself down causing Jounouchi to shove him away.

"Jounouchi just stay calm and think through your moves. If you do that then I know you'll win," I spoke up. Everyone looked at me and the blonde boy gave me a smile to show his thanks, then he turned around and walked off to get to the duel arena with Yugi joining us up on the balcony so that he could watch the duel with us.

Jounouchi stepped into the arena although Keith still hadn't showed up and it turned out he was still on the balcony underneath the one we were stood on, Crocketts asked the two for their Glory cards and whilst Keith easily produced his, Jounouchi started frantically searching his body and I began to get a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"D-don't tell me… Jounouchi lost his card?" Anzu asked. I didn't like her but I could understand the disbelief in her tone as it seemed completely insane, with Bakura thinking Jounouchi was completely possible of misplacing his entry card with Honda claiming that the blonde was an idiot although Jounouchi was confident that he would indeed find the card.

"Indeed. Anyone without the entry card will be disqualified," Crocketts informed. This caused Jounouchi to worry although he soon settled down once Anzu told him to retrace his steps and so Jounouchi began to rush back to his room although he had to return before eleven o'clock, as that was when the match started, or he would be disqualified and it was in five minutes which was barely enough time to reach his room.

The tension was thick as we waited for Jounouchi to return with the card with Keith being forced to step into the arena otherwise he would have been disqualified as well, my fingers drummed against the marble rail and I was beginning to get seriously worried that Jounouchi might not make it back in time.

"Hey I hope your friend finds his card," Michael voice called. We all looked as the other man stepped up to the rail and he looked down, everyone was grateful for the sentiment but sentiment wouldn't confirm its' discovery and I pulled out my Glory of the King's Right Hand with Katherine having done the same thing as well.

"Yo. Shouldn't we just disqualify him now? He ain't coming back," Keith complained. This naturally caused the others to start up with their protests that Jounouchi would indeed be coming back and I had to agree with them on that. "It's real simple. He's just a baby who doesn't know shit about cards, he may be a moron but he's at least intelligent enough to know he stands no chance against me in cards. He gave up on the duel before it even began, he said he's looking for his card but he's just looking for a place to hide! He's probably off crying somewhere in the castle and won't be coming back any time soon don't you think," Keith mocked.

Yugi calmly stated his opinion that Jounouchi would return since he wasn't the kind of person to run from any kind of battle although Keith didn't believe him and reminded all of us that there was only a short time left before the match was due to start.

As the clock turned so that there was only a minute left, I didn't wait another moment and pushed off the rail and darted around the others and down the hallway ignoring Katherine and Yugi calling my name, I had to reach Jounouchi before time ran out, he could take my card and continue the duel since I didn't need it.

"Stand up Jounouchi!" Mai's voice echoed, her tone stern and harsh. I had just turned the corner nearing the entry way to the blue podium side of the duel arena when I heard it, I saw Mai's long blonde hair and from what she said it seemed that Jounouchi was in front of her so I decided to take a few steps back but I lingered near the corner just in case. "Save those tears for if you lose the duel!" Mai added on.

Jounouchi insisted that he simply had a runny nose although Mai handed him something with I assumed to be a handkerchief to dry his eyes and she also encouraged Jounouchi to not give up on his desires as she knew about Shizuka's situation, Mai even bought Jounouchi's claim that he had a runny nose as she encouraged Jounouchi to keep fighting.

"Wait, Kujaku Mai!" Jounouchi called out. Both of them were in my line of sight and I was able to see that Mai had given Jounouchi her Glory card causing a smile to appear on my face, Mai insisted that Jounouchi take the card since she didn't need it. "Mai… why did you do this for me?" Jounouchi asked. His tone carried a bit of hope and confusion as he spoke his question.

Mai reminded him that he had a duel and she encouraged him to defeat Keith, once Jounouchi had dashed off Mai asked why Jounouchi thought she had given him her card admitting it was because they were friends, with that out of the way she began walking further away from the door and to my position.

"You're not as cold as you make yourself out to be Mai," I commented as soon as she stepped across from me. The blonde woman whipped around as a surprised expression dawned on her face. "That's two you've save now," I added on. Mai's face calmed down and she sent me as smirk as we stood opposite each other.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to eavesdrop Kylie-san?" Mai asked. I let out a laugh and Mai responded with smile, I then held out my hand and she looked at it briefly before slotting her own into its' grip and we shook.

"Thanks and next time we'll duel," I said. Mai nodded, with that we dropped hands and I turned away and began to run up towards the balcony so that I wouldn't miss the duel whilst Mai turned and began to walk away so that she could leave the island but I had a feeling that we would be seeing the blonde vixen again some time down the line.

"So he came back to admit his loss?" Keith mocked. I had arrived just in time to see Jounouchi hold out Mai's card for Crocketts to see just as the clock turned to eleven O'clock meaning he had made it just in time, although I did notice that Keith seemed rather shocked that Jounouchi had returned with the card which made me very suspicious about this whole scenario.

"Well Keith, let's get this duel started," Jounouchi informed. His opponent didn't look too concerned and even stated that he was somewhat hoping that Jounouchi would come back to the arena so that he could duel but called it a living hell for the blonde. "Then I'm going to **beat** the hell out of you," Jounouchi shot back. Against Keith, Jounouchi would need to keep that determination if he wanted to win but that hardly seem to be a problem for the blonde boy.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000**

 **Keith – LP: 2000**

"You better prepare yourself. The Intercontinental Duel Champion, the great Bandit Keith's going to send you to hell with the strongest deck," Keith bragged. I raised an eyebrow at this and it seemed that even he hadn't heard about the new champion but given how away from the duel scene he's been since his defeat I wasn't totally shocked just a little surprised by this.

"That don't impress me in the least! I made it to the Best Eight in the Intercity Tournament," Joey mocked. Keith simply stated that Jounouch was full of himself… talk about a situation of a pot calling the kettle black.

"Well," Pegasus chimed in. Everyone turned to look at the man with Keith demanding an answer. "Since the most recent Intercontinental Championships were held earlier this year and you didn't return to defend you title a new Champion was crowned," Pegasus informed. Everyone held a shocked expression at this piece of news except for Michael who obviously already knew about this fact.

"Who the hell was it?!" Keith yelled. It was obvious that he wanted to find the newest champion and duel them so that he could reclaim their title but I knew that the duel wouldn't be that easy and in fact Keith might actually lose horribly against the person.

Pegasus simply closed his eyes and held a smirk on his face and I saw that Keith was only getting angrier and angrier the longer that Pegasus decided to remain quiet, his body shaking as he waited for an answer although then Pegasus proceed to open his eyes and sent a mocking look towards Keith.

"The new Intercontinental Champion is one Kylie Hope," Pegasus announced. At the same time as this he raised a hand to gesture towards me, everyone snapped their heads towards me with shocked expressions on their faces although I raised my hand and waved it at Keith which caused the man to banging his fist against the podium.

"Get back to the duel," I pushed. This seemed to jump everyone to action as Keith immediately played a monster in face down defence position and then Jounouchi proceeded to do the same thing which was a smart move and so Keith flicked over his monster to reveal Pendulum Blade Torture Machine.

 **Pendulum Blade Torture Machine – Attribute: Dark, Type; Machine, Level: 6, ATK/1750, DEF/2000**

"A Machine monster!" Jounouchi exclaimed. Keith then had his Pendulum Machine attack Jounouchi's face down monster and it easily sliced through the blonde boy's defensive line but at least now Jounouchi would be able to begin planning a counter attack since he could see Keith's monster.

Yugi and Bakura also picked up on this fact and explained it to the other two after Honda commented that Pendulum Machine's attack was a bad thing, the only thing I was curious about was why Keith had played a Machine card to begin with but I guess we would find out during this duel, Keith taunted Jounouchi about making his move.

"Not even playing any set cards? You're just asking for a killing! Go, Magic Knight Gilitia in attack mode," Joey retorted. His monster was projected onto the field and since it had a higher attack power, Keith's monster would be destroyed however the former champion didn't look even half fazed by this.

 **Magic Knight Gilitia – Attribute: Light, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1850, DEF/1500**

Gilitia attacked with his Soul Spear however when the magical energies impacted the Machine instead of being destroyed by the attack, the energy simply split around the machine doing no damage at all which seriously confused all of us with Honda even asking me, Yugi and Katherine if this was right.

"You fell for it. My Machine monsters are equipped with a special Fullmetal Anti-Magic Armour! Magic attacks won't work on them," Keith explained. He laughed at the end, but at least we now knew why Keith had played that monster since it would be able to withstand magic from any of the cards in the game which put Jounouchi at a disadvantage.

"My turn. TM One Launcher Spider!" Keith announced. He then proceeded to bring out his Launcher Spider, Jounouchi would need to do something in order to combat these Machines otherwise any chance of going further in this tournament and saving his sister's eyesight went out the window.

 **TM-1 Launcher Spider – Attribute: Fire, Type: Machine, Level: 7, ATK/2200, DEF/2500**

Keith ordered his new monster to attack and with its' power it was able to destroy Magic Knight Gilitia which resulted in Jounouchi losing some of his Life Points but from the look in his eyes, the boy wasn't about to give up on this duel which was hardly a surprise as he was the most determined person I'd ever meet.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1650**

"Wow… the power of Machine monsters is unreal!" Bakura stated. That was quite true but every machine had a glitch and the only thing that Jounouchi needed to do was to figure out exactly what that glitch was and how to best exploit it with the cards that he had in his deck, Anzu then turned to ask Yugi if Jounouchi had any chance of winning this.

"I'm guessing Bandit Keith's entire deck is made up of Machine type cards, a Heavyweight Power deck. Making all Spell card ineffective he then backs his opponent into a corner with his overwhelming attack power but such powerful attacks always have some kind of weak point," Yugi theorised.

"Over powering someone isn't always the best option sometimes you have to out think them," Katherine spoke. Yugi nodded to show his agreement and then we all turned back to watch the duel as Jounouchi set one card face down and a monster in defence mode as well which was a smart move on Jounouchi's part.

"I set a card face down on the field then I'll play this guy in face down defe-," Keith commented. However the monster he had been about to play slipped from his fingers and its' form was projected briefly onto the field before Keith swiftly scooped the card up. "Whoa… my hand slipped I'll put this monster face down in defence mode and end my turn," Keith continued.

However I was suspicious about why he had dropped that card because it most definitely wasn't by accident after all the creature had turned out to be Devilzoa from what I managed to glimpse of it and not only was that monster a non-Machine type, its' defence points were far lower than its' attack points making this move rather odd to begin with.

The other spectators had also noted this fact and from the look on his face Jounouchi had successfully identified the creature just as I had however I doubted that Jounouchi would pick up on the suspicious nature of Keith dropping that card, Jounouchi then proceeded to summon out his Flame Swordsman.

 **Flame Swordsman – Attribute: Fire, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

"Awfully suspicious," Michael muttered. Everyone looked at him confused by what he had said although from the look in Yugi's eyes it seemed that he had an idea about this.

"It's strange… Devilzoa has two thousand, six hundred attack points and only one thousand, nine hundred defence points," Yugi spoke up. It was no surprise that the young boy had caught on to the suspiciousness of the move and whilst Honda and Anzu were completely confused, Bakura was quick to realise exactly what Yugi was hinting at, at the exact same time Jounouchi activated Salamandra.

 **Flame Swordsman – ATK/1800 – ATK/2500**

"I was thinking it wasn't immune to magic attacks but Devilzoa has more than enough attack points. No one thinking logically would play it in defence mode," Bakura explained. This caused the other two to realise that this was all one big trap however none of us could stop Jounouchi in time and we soon learned that the face down Keith had played was in fact the Trap card Magic-Reflection Armour – Metal Force which turned Devilzoa into Metal Devilzoa

 **Metal Devilzoa – Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 8, ATK/3000 DEF/2300**

The increase in power wasn't the only difference this Trap had caused as it sent Flame Swordsman's magic based attack flying right back at him thus incinerating the monster and dealing more damage to Jounouchi's Life Points in the process.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1650 – LP: 1150**

"I can't believe you fell for such an obvious trap! You seriously are still an amateur," Keith mocked. He then went on with his turn and drew a card form his deck which turned out to be Defence Sealing and thanks to this Jounouchi's defensive monster was forced into attack revealing that it was Axe Raider.

 **Axe Raider – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1700, DEF/1150**

Keith commanded his Metal Devilzoa to attack and with the difference in power if this attack hit then that was it for Jounouchi, although the one thing that Keith seemed to have overlooked was that Jounouchi still had a face down card out which could potentially turn this duel around if it was a card that could help in this situation.

As Metal Devilzoa charged forward all of us waited with baited breath for something to happen and as if by some miracle Metal Devilzoa disappeared from the duel arena quite suddenly, we soon learned that Metal Devilzoa had actually fallen into a pit fall that had appeared in the duel arena right in front of Axe Raider.

"Ta-da! Trap card activate! Skewer Pitfall," Jounouchi cheered. He held up the card that had just been activated to show off revealing that it was the aforementioned trap and thank to this card not only would Metal Devilzoa be destroyed for triggering it but Keith would also be dealt one quarter of Metal Devilzoa's attack points as damage.

 **Keith – LP: 2000 – LP: 1250**

Jounouchi mocked Keith in a similar fashion to how Keith had mocked Jounouchi earlier about the Trap used against Flame Swordsman with Anzu commenting that she couldn't believe the blonde boy was actually managing to hold his own against the former Intercontinental Champion.

"And that's not the only way he's turning the tables on Keith. I think Jounouchi might have finally found the glitch in those Machine monsters. Rather than try and beat them in a direct assault he's letting his traps do all the work, like you said Katherine out smart not over power," Yugi added on. Katherine allowed a small and very shy smile to appear on her face as we turned back to the duel.

"My turn. I'll first set a card face down, Keith this is a Trap card so you'd best be careful," Jounouchi taunted. The smirk on his face would only add fuel to the fire of anger that Keith was most likely feeling, Keith outright called the move a bluff but Jounouchi simply switched Axe Raider to defence since Defence Sealing was gone and summoned out Garoozis in attack mode.

 **Garoozis – Attribute: Fire, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1500**

Once brought out Jounouchi immediately had Garoozis attack Pendulum Machine thus reducing Keith's Life Points once more and leaving him with only one Machine monster left on the field which was a smart move.

 **Keith – LP: 1250 – LP: 1200**

"Launcher Spider blow Garoozis to smithereens!" Keith ordered. The missiles from Launcher Spider shot over and upon impact a cloud of smoke rose up. "There ain't even a corpse left," Keith commented. However it soon turned out that Keith was wrong and the Trap card Jounouchi had used was Chain Attached Boomerang increasing Garoozis' attack power.

 **Garoozis – ATK/1800 – ATK/2300**

With this erroneous move on Keith's behalf, Garoozis was more than strong enough to destroy Launcher Spider thus taking away another hundred points from Keith's Life Points making it so that Jounouchi now had the slightest of leads in this duel.

 **Keith – LP: 1200 – LP: 1100**

"It's a shame Keith. Looks like the one who's going to see a living hell is you!" Jounouchi mocked. Keith was indeed beginning to lose his composure due to the fact that Jounouchi was proving to be a harder opponent that he had thought the boy would be and if Keith wanted any hope of winning this match then he needed to start viewing Jounouchi as a serious opponent instead of just an amateur.


	27. Chapter 27

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 27: - Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon!

"Alright their Life Points are pretty close but Jounouchi-kun scored a lead," Yugi commented. He was quite right given that the duelists' life points were only separated by a mere fifty points it could easily swing either way but if Jounouchi wanted to win he had to keep a calm head, I just hoped he could pull it off.

The others continued cheering him on and reminding him of what he was fighting for which didn't really need to be done since I'm sure Jounouchi easily knew exactly what was at stake here, I looked at Pegasus and since my senses were attuned to it now, I managed to sense that he was using his Millennium Eye but for what purpose was still a complete mystery it was then that Keith began to laugh so Jounouchi demanded to know why.

"Hey kid, have you ever been pushed to the far edge of sanity, the point where you'd risk everything to win? Pushed to the far edge? I'm asking if you've ever seen hell?! Risking everything to save yourself, no matter the cost!" Keith asked. It was probably an attempt to shake down Jounouchi's confidence and make him question if he was ready to combat what Keith had in store. "The only escape from my hell is right through Pegasus! I'll do anything I have to do to get there, even if it means going to hell and back!" Keith proclaimed.

"That's worthless. Don't talk do big and bad, despair, revenge, I know all about it. But you forgot something really important!" Jounouchi lectured. Keith demanded to know what it was that he had forgotten and I was rather interested to know what the younger blonde was implying. "And it's a shame, really. You aren't going to reach Pegasus, cause I'm going to beat you right here and now. Now it's your turn," Jounouchi finished

Their hearts lay across different paths, Keith was so filled with despair and thoughts of revenge that he had lost his goals and become a foolish bitter man whilst Jounouchi's heart was brimming with hope and love for his friends and most importantly his sister… I knew exactly how he felt because Kylie was the most important person in my life and I'd do anything for her.

Jounouchi passed his turn but it appeared that his lecture had angered Keith quite a bit, Keith threw a card into the Spell and Trap zone then proceeded to summon out his Revolver Dragon which was a rather nasty piece of work given that it could attack up to three times thanks to its' Special Effect and if that happened then Jounouchi's would be left defenceless.

 **Revolver Dragon: - Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 7, ATK/2600, DEF/2200**

Keith activated Revolver Dragon's Special Effect which was successful on two of the revolvers allowing it to attack twice but that didn't matter since the only two monsters that Jounouchi had out on the field were completely obliterated thanks to those two attacks and since one of the monster was in attack mode that caused Jounouchi to take some serious Life Point damage.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1150 – LP: 850**

"Each of the Revolver Dragon's heads has two thousand, six hundred attack points! Kid, the chambers will reload on my next turn and I'll start over again," Keith bragged. I hated to admit it but Keith was right to be so arrogant, that monster was truly incredible in power and ability however whilst a monster alone was no good, combining cards into a combo attack was one of the core strategies of this game which would work.

"Now isn't that interesting? In that case I'll use this card," Jounouchi announced. He then proceeded to play Time Magician making it very clear that he intended to use the time controlling effect to rust Revolver Dragon into dust which would work out splendidly for Jounouchi.

 **Time Magician – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 2, ATK/500, DEF/400**

However Jounouchi wasn't done yet and proceeded to bring out his Baby Dragon causing me to smile as I realised that he intended to use the same combo from his duel against Mai in order to defeat Revolver Dragon which would also leave Jounouchi with a powerful monster on his field… if it didn't go sideways that is.

 **Baby Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 3, ATK/1200, DEF/900**

Jounouchi activated the Time Roulette and so we all held our breath as the dial began to spin around with the only one that actually remained calm being Pegasus, soon the dial began to slow and once more fortune smiled on Jounouchi for the dial landed on the Time Machine and so one thousand years began to pass leaving Jounouchi with just the card he needed to turn this duel around once more.

 **Thousand Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

 **Revolver Dragon – ATK/2600 – ATK/1800, DEF/2200 – DEF/1400**

"Is he married to Lady Luck or something? He so rarely loses at these things that it's almost a skill," Kylie commented. I giggled slightly at that whilst the boys laughed since it did seem like that on occasion, Jounouchi then commanded his mighty dragon to attack and it blasted Revolver Dragon into nothingness causing us to cheer.

However our good energy soon vanished when Keith declared that he had a Trap card waiting and when it appeared on the field I sucked in a harsh breath seeing that is was the Time Machine which jumped back into the past by one turn thus returning Keith's Revolver Dragon back to the field in perfect condition but even worse than that, Keith hadn't lost a single point despite the difference in power that had been present during the attack due to the trap thus making Jounouchi's move a complete waste.

Since the monster was back in perfect condition that made it stronger than Thousand Dragon and Keith wasn't about to waste the opportunity he had, Keith commanded his Dragon to attack Jounouchi's Dragon thus destroying the creature and deducting more of Jounouchi's Life Points leaving him with only a precious few left to fight with.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 850 – LP: 650**

"Impossible… what the hell just happened?" Jounouchi spoke. His voice conveyed the shock and disbelief he was currently feeling loud and clear, I didn't blame him considering that he had worked so hard to get rid of the Revolver Dragon and yet with one card Keith had made all of that work blatantly pointless along with destroying one of his most powerful monsters, Keith explained what he had just done with the trap card.

"I memorised that pathetic deck of yours back when you fought against Kotsuzuka! Although it's just the worthless deck of an amateur with no true strategy," Keith boasted. I shivered slightly at the reminder of the Zombie duelist, I thought only Zombies could scare me that badly but now I knew that his face was far more frightening than any Zombie could ever be.

Jounouchi couldn't do much on his turn so he simply played a monster face down in defence mode, it was fortunate that Keith couldn't attack Time Magician otherwise Jounouchi would have lost this duel already but now the blonde novice had to figure out another way of defeating the former champion, Keith responded to Jounouchi's move by bringing out his Slot Machine monster.

 **Slot Machine AM-7 – Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 7, ATK/,2000 DEF/2300**

Keith commanded his Revolver Dragon to attack Jounouchi's face down monster thus destroying it and leaving the reins of this duel in Jounouchi's hands, I slightly bit down on my bottom lip as Jounouchi stared at his hand obviously trying to figure out some kind of strategy in order to defeat both of Keith's monsters without losing more Life Points.

"Endure it Jounouchi-kun, there's got to be a way to turn this around!" Yugi encouraged. Jounouchi seemed to have decided on a play as he slid a card into the Spell and Trap zone then proceeded to summon out Red-Eyes Black Dragon however instead of attacking Slot Machine, Jounouchi simply ended his turn there and then.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

"What's Jounouchi thinking?" I asked. Kylie looked unsure making it well known that even she couldn't figure out exactly what the blonde boy was up to with Yugi shrugging his shoulders, since the rest of us duelists had no clue I didn't expect an answer from the other three and simply turned my attention back to the duel before me.

"That card may be the strongest card in your deck with the highest attack power but it ain't no match for my Revolver Dragon," Keith mocked. He then commanded his Revolver Dragon to attack but before the attack hit, Jounouchi proceeded to activate his face down which turned out to be Mimic Illusionist and Jounouchi decided to use its' effect to copy Magic-Reflection Armour – Metal Force.

Thanks to this move, Jounouchi's Red-Eyes was transformed into a metal version which increased its' power levels as a result and thanks to this sudden increase in attack strength, the new Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon was easily able to blow away Keith's Barrel Dragon and finally deal some more damage to that jerk's Life Points again.

 **Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 8, ATK/2800, DEF/2400**

 **Keith – LP: 1100 – LP: 900**

"Bandit Keith, whether you think it's just luck or a miracle that I'm beating you, I could care less either way!" Jounouchi declared. Jounouchi's move was an impressive one however he still had to be wary since this duel wasn't over yet and there had to be some reason as to why Keith would play that Slot Machine.

In response to the destruction of his dragon, Keith decided to play it safe and switched his Slot Machine into defence mode after he played a card in the Spell and Trap zone thus allowing Jounouchi to take control with him beginning his turn by throwing one of his own cards into the Spell and Trap zone then commanded his shiny new dragon to attack.

"Then I'll use this face down card, Seven Completed!" Keith declared. With this activation, the centre slot of the Slot Machine spun around until it landed on a seven symbol which severely confused us all but when Red-Eyes' attack hit the Slot Machine it wasn't destroyed like it should have been.

"This card is a power up unit that increases the Slot Machine's defence power, it raised Slot Machine's defence points by seven hundred, up to three thousand! So Red-Eyes' attack didn't work," Keith explained. Due to the sudden increase in defensive power not only was Red-Eyes unable to destroy Slot Machine but due to the failed attack, the difference was dealt to Jounouchi as damage.

 **Slot Machine AM-7 – DEF/2300 – DEF/3000**

 **Jounouchi – LP: 650 – LP: 450**

"Now he can't lay a hand on the Slot Machine," Yugi stated. This put Jounouchi in quite the difficult position, his dragon would be incapable of stopping Slot Machine so long as it was in defence mode unless he found a way to change its' points.

"Now it's my turn again. The Slot Machine's attack or defence, I can choose to power up either one with the other two Seven Completed cards," Keith revealed. Jounouchi pointed out that would equal two thousand, one hundred points of damage in total if Jounouchi got hit by all three cards but just because Keith had them didn't mean he would draw them in this duel.

Keith drew a card and lifted it up to look however thanks to my eyesight which was twice as good as normal people, I saw Keith reach under his wristband and he then pulled out a card causing my eyes to widen in disgust that this man was cheating… sadly my word alone wouldn't be enough to actually get him disqualified for cheating.

"I'm going to use another Seven Completed card this turn! I use this to raise Slot Machine's attack power by seven hundred points," Keith bragged. The card he flipped around was indeed another Seven Completed and it had also been the one that he pulled out from underneath his wrist band causing me to grit my teeth as my hands balled themselves into fists.

 **Slot Machine AM-7 – ATK/2000 – ATK/2700**

It was fortunate that Slot Machine still wasn't powerful enough to destroy Red-Eyes but Jounouchi had to do something about that monster and quick before Keith pulled his final Seven Completed card otherwise he was going to lose this duel sadly Keith wasn't done with his turn yet as he proceeded to summon out Sphere Bomb – Spherical Time Bomb.

 **Sphere Bomb – Spherical Time Bomb – Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 4, ATK/2900, DEF/1400**

The metal sphere disappeared for a moment and when it had reappeared, the sphere proceeded to locked itself around Red-Eyes' chest area which left Jounouchi completely confused until Keith explained that when it went off in the next turn, two thousand and nine hundred points of damage would be dealt thus destroying Red-Eyes.

If this succeeded then Red-Eyes would be destroyed and Jounouchi would lose even more Life Points whilst also depriving him of his most powerful monster, Keith ended his turn and Blast Sphere became enshrouded in a blue light then it proceeded to explode sending up a cloud of smoke thus preventing us from seeing Jounouchi's field.

The smoke cleared away and surprisingly, Red-Eyes was still standing tall and proud in its' metal form which was a source of relief for us and a source of great confusion for Keith as to how the dragon had managed to survive the effect of Sphere Bomb until we all caught a glimpse of Red-Eyes' power level.

 **Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon – ATK/2800 – ATK/3400**

"What the frig" Keith asked. He was obviously unable to believe that his plan had basically failed to destroy Red-Eyes despite the obvious proof that it had failed standing before him, Jounouchi held a smug grin on his face as he enjoyed seeing Keith in complete disbelief about the current situation.

"That sure was a close one, this thing really save me back there," Jounouchi explained. As he did, the blonde held up the Spell card Claws of the Dark Dragon Tribe, at least that cleared up how Red-Eyes had become so strong all of a sudden and now it was payback time for the deflected attack since now thanks to his failure Keith was dealt the difference in damage.

 **Keith – LP: 900 – LP: 400**

Keith proceeded to make his move and once more I saw him draw then reach under his wristband in order to retrieve another card which I assumed was his final Seven Competed card causing my lips to pull back in a sneer at his filthy and disgusting cheating ways.

Keith proved my suspicions to be right as he activated the hidden Seven Completed card and used it to power up Slot Machine's attack points once more and now the slot areas on the monster were all spun around to display a seven symbol.

 **Slot Machine AM-7 – ATK/2700 – ATK/3400**

Both monsters had the exact same attack points now and once more only fifty measly Life Points separated the two duelists making it still anyone's game at the moment with the next turn being the one that could decide exactly how this duel was going to play out.

Jounouchi stared at his hand obviously trying to figure out some kind of plan to tip the balance in his favour however he didn't seem to find an answer in any of his cards so drew one from his deck and stared at it for a while before carefully and almost thoughtfully placing it into the Spell and Trap zone causing me to wonder exactly what card Jounouchi had just played and why he looked so passive.

"If you ain't going to make a move, I'll take my turn now," Keith mocked. Jounouchi did just as Keith asked which left everything up to chance now as we turned our attention to Keith wondering exactly what would happen on this man's move. "Kid, I praise you for making it this far against me but this is as far as you go! Take a look at this card! The Bandit," Keith declared.

Kylie let out an annoyed grumble and I didn't blame her given that the Bandit was a Spell card that allowed the one who played it to steal a card from their opponent's hand which could turn out badly for Jounouchi if he had a card in his hand which would help Keith tip the balance of this duel into his favour.

Jounouchi lay down his cards so that Keith would be able to see them on the duel screen and take his pick of them, Keith chose one and once he had it in his hand the arrogant blonde lifted it up allowing us to see that the card he had stolen was the Shield in the Right Hand and Sword in the Left Hand card thus allowing Keith to flip the attack and defence points of both monsters which gave his monster the edge in this match.

 **Slot Machine AM-7 – ATK/3400 – ATK/3000, DEF/3000 – DEF/3400**

 **Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon – ATK/3400 – ATK/2400, DEF/2400 – DEF/3400**

Keith ordered his Slot Machine to attack and given the difference in power it was clear that Jounouchi was going to lose so I covered my face as the explosion from the attack rocked the duel arena, Keith began to laugh in joy over his victory however it was soon cut off suddenly and I felt a tap on my shoulder causing me to look up to see Yugi smiling and he pointed down into the arena so I turned my attention to see what was going on.

As the smoke cleared away it allowed us to see that Jounouchi had activated a Grave Robber Trap card at the last second which allowed him to steal Keith's Time Machine so that it could be used as his own card which allowed him to bring back Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon exactly how it was one turn ago thus negating the battle damage and spell effect whilst simultaneously giving Jounouchi the edge.

Jounouchi's quick thinking had shocked Keith whilst it caused the rest of us to cheer as a smile wormed its' way onto my face at the move that Jounouchi had made, Kylie was chuckling lightly as she shook her head but like the rest of us she had a large smile plastered on her face whilst Michael clapped his hands to show that he was impressed as well.

Jounouchi commanded Red-Eyes to attack and it easily destroyed Slot Machine whilst ensuring that Jounouchi would move on to the semi-finals, Keith was in so much shock that he had basically been beaten by an amateur duelist but then that shock turned into outright anger.

 **Keith – LP: 400 – LP: 0**

"This duel is invalid!" Keith yelled. All of us looked at him wondering why on earth he would declare such a fact, I honestly chalked it up to him being a sore loser after all he did lock us in a cave after Jounouchi won the last time. "The entry card he showed wasn't even his. He wasn't even permitted to participate in this duel from the start," Keith declared.

I noticed Kylie raising an inquisitive eyebrow almost as if she found something interesting, Kylie hadn't told any of us what happened out in the hallway when she came back but I took the wild guess that Kylie had given Jounouchi her card but then how on earth would Keith know that the card Jounouchi displayed wasn't his own.

"You're right I couldn't find my card anywhere, so Mai gave me her card in its' place. But, you know, how the heck did you know this wasn't my card in the first place?" Jounouchi asked. He had caught on to the same thing Kylie had although I was slightly surprised to learn that it was Mai who had been the one to save Jounouchi, she truly was a good person deep down underneath her tough exterior.

Keith couldn't give an answer to his knowledge although Pegasus clearly stated that it was obvious Keith had stolen Jounouchi's card to enter the tournament and then Pegasus also revealed that he had spotted Keith drawing cards from under his wristband thus effectively disqualifying Keith for being a cheater and Pegasus had him get dragged away by guards.

"I guess it's you and me now Kylie," Michael commented. Kylie nodded her head however before either of them could make a move down towards the podiums, Keith came running back into the room and jumped off the duel arena having used it to spring board himself over to where Pegasus was sitting.

"You sure are a persistent one," Pegasus stated. I couldn't believe how calm Pegasus was being, especially considering that Keith had **A GUN POINTED AT HIS HEAD!** How the hell had he got that thing onto the island in the first place? Kylie reacted as normal and immediately put herself between me and any potential danger but Keith was solely focused on Pegasus.

"Hand over the prize money, otherwise I'll take your life right here!" Keith demanded. Pegasus didn't even flinch and after insulting Keith even more, Pegasus activated a trap door which sent Keith plummeting out and away from the castle. My heart was still hammering rapidly in my chest so Kylie rubbed my hair slightly before standing to her feet and with a nod at her opponent, the two headed down for the next match.


	28. Chapter 28

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 28: - Best of Friends, Best of Duelists (I)

Me and Katherine won our matches with relative ease – with both me and Katherine opting to show the Glory of the King's Left – so now the lot of us were stood up on the balcony once more as the semi-finals were being determined by randomisation so there was an impatient wait to see who we were determined to face.

Eventually the randomisation process was finished and I let out a small sigh of neutrality as I gazed at my opponent's face; whilst it wasn't the person I had been hoping I knew that it wouldn't be an easy duel either, the matches were Yugi VS. Jounouchi and me VS. Katherine.

"Oh man, I don't know which is worse. Two best friends or two sisters going up against each other," Honda stated. Both Jounouchi and Yugi were fighting for something important and now that they were set to face each other it would soon be apparent who had the greater desire within them, as for me and Katherine it had started as a normal tournament that got messed up very quickly.

"I guess you'll be going to the finals Kylie," Katherine commented. Everyone turned to look at us confused as to how we could be so calm but dueling each other wasn't totally weird after all we were sisters and had even faced off against each other in tournaments before.

In response to my sister's words I knelt down beside her and gently settled my hand atop her head then turned it to face me, I then pressed my forehead against her own and gave the petite ravenette a firm and confident smile just like every time that we had been set to duel against each other.

"Maybe not, you could beat me today," I commented. Every time I said the same thing to encourage my sister to go that little bit further in our battles instead of just assuming I'd win right off the bat. "Since it's you two first you best start preparing yourselves," I suggested. Yugi and Jounouchi nodded their heads as they stepped away to head down and I knew that they would be having a discussion on the way down.

Both Jounouchi and Yugi walked out onto the duel arena, the two of them had firm and determined looks shining within their eyes no doubt focusing on the goal that they were fighting to achieve, sometimes the world was a cruel place to pit people fighting for a good cause – friends or not – against each other in any battle but that was the way that the world could be and there was no turning back from this necessary confrontation.

Bakura and Honda were discussing how unlikely the current situation was to begin with as Honda stated that the match still had to go on no matter how we felt about it; of course that stupid girl had to open her mouth by questioning why the two friends had to fight against each other.

"Sweet Gods of Japan and Egypt, how brain dead are you?!" I exclaimed. My green eyes burned with fire as I turned to glare right at Anzu who gulped and took a step back whilst the other three wisely kept quiet. "Life isn't fair. Plus this is a duel tournament meaning it has to be settled with a duel! Or do you want the prize money to stay locked away!" I snapped. With that done, I turned my attention back to the duel arena.

It would seem that Yugi also had some reservations about fighting against his friend but Jounouchi was completely lacking in that regard as he simply encouraged Yugi to keep fighting to the bitter end no matter who his opponent was, just like how Yugi had been doing since he set foot on the island two days ago.

Jounouchi's words seemed to hit home within Yugi as he immediately called upon the power of his Millennium Puzzle thus allowing for Other Yugi to take over for the duration of the duel, after a brief moment the Life Point counters rolled out to the starting pointing meaning it was time for this confrontation to begin.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

"Yugi I want to say something before we start the duel. You believe this or what? I actually made it all the way to the semi-final round, against you. I made it this far thanks to you and the others, right now I'm feeling something that I want to fight you seriously. I know you have incredible strength, that's why I want to fight head on against this strength, against this power! Let's go Yugi!" Jounouchi spoke. There was no way that either of these two were going to back down in this fight, they would give it everything they had in them to make sure they were the victor, I just hoped that it didn't ruin their friendship in the process.

"I'll start things off. Elf Swordsman in attack mode!" Yugi declared. The first move caused the elven warrior to arise in position and I wondered how this whole thing would play out, both boys were incredibly skilled duelists although Other Yugi was admittedly the best but at the same time they knew each other's decks as well as their own.

 **Elf Swordsman – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

The three who knew Yugi and Jounouchi well talked about how things had changed in this match with Honda claiming that by both fighting their hardest as duelists, they had both become men – I don't really understand that – and Bakura wondering if Jounouchi's usual strategy would actually be able to take down Other Yugi.

"Even if one does win that doesn't necessarily mean they'll get to face Peagsus. Me or Katherine will be in the way but Yugi has my word that even if I or Kathie wins his grandfather will be saved and if it is he who wins then I will provide the money for Shizuka's operation which is no doubt expensive but I'm rich, money is no concern to me," I admitted softly. A soft yep came from Katherine confirming she felt the same way.

Silence stretched over the arena as Jounouchi looked over his cards planning his move, neither boy had heard my words which I had done on purpose so as to not drain their fighting spirit but I felt the other spectators staring at me along with Pegasus; Jounouchi made his move by summoning out Gilitia in attack mode.

 **Magic Knight Gilitia – Attribute: Light, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1850, DEF/1500**

"Gilitia attack, Soul Spear assault!" Jounouchi ordered. The monster unleashed its' magical attack and since Elf Swordsman wasn't a Machine monster this time the attack worked as Elf Swordsman was turned into holographic pixels and dealing damage towards Other Yugi's Life Points.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1550**

"Elf Swordsman just got a beating!" Jounouchi commented. Stripping Other Yugi of nearly five hundred Life Points on the first turn was a damned fine way to make such a point, especially in a semi-final or final match, Other Yugi also had to be ready to show how determined he was to win this match and the tournament as a whole. "What's wrong Yugi? Put out something more powerful than that!" Jounouchi demanded.

The mysterious spirit didn't answer straight away allowing Honda to point out that Jounouchi had gotten stronger but Bakura – who I'm beginning to think is more duel savvy then he lets on – commented that when it came to focus Other Yugi had the blonde boy beat several times over, also Other Yugi had continually displayed the uncanny ability to turn a duel on its' head with a single move.

"Jounouchi-kun!" Other Yugi called. This seemed to confused Jounouchi but it was clear that this mysterious spirit had something to say to Jounouchi thus why he had called out the boy's name. "In this game each battle between monsters is a risk, even if I play a monster with a higher attack than yours. I may only win one battle and lead can change at any moment," Other Yugi warned.

Jounouchi understood those words admitting what he had learned on the island, Other Yugi continued by explaining that the key to Duel Monsters was a balancing act between the three types of card especially in regards to Spells and Monsters with someone unaware of that fact being incapable of winning.

Jounouchi had learned from watching Other Yugi fight but the mysterious spirit pointed out that the blonde shouldn't use up all of his good monsters right at the start of a match, Jounouchi thanked his friend for the advice, Other Yugi was swift to act on the opening that he had seen by summoning out Gaia the Dark Knight.

 **Gaia the Dark Knight – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 7, ATK/2300, DEF/2100**

With a swift command from Other Yugi, Gaia's horse let out a fierce neigh as it reared up before charging towards the Magic Knight who was easily overcome by the much more powerful knight thus dealing damage straight to Jounouchi's Life Points and hopefully teaching the boy a valuable lesson.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1550**

Despite the fact that Other Yugi had equalised their Life Points, Jounouchi wasn't deterred and instead chose to progress with his next move by selecting a card and summoning it onto the field in defence mode which was a smart move until the blonde could summon out a more powerful monster to deal with Gaia.

 **Armour Lizard – Attribute: Earth, Type: Reptile, Level: 4, ATK/1500, DEF/1200**

However the selection of Armour Lizard was a little unusual as I knew for a fact that Jounouchi had much more suitable monsters available so it would be interesting to see what Jounouchi was planning inside of that mind of his, sometimes the knucklehead could be quite surprising within a duel.

The others were also curious with Bakura believing that Jounouchi must have a plan in place and judging from the look on Pegasus' face I knew for a fact that Bakura's theory was definitely right and that crazy card maker knew exactly what it was, Other Yugi made his move by summoning out his trusty Demon's Summon.

 **Demon's Summon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 6, ATK/2500, DEF/1200**

Naturally Other Yugi ordered another assault against Jounouchi decimating his only line of defence despite not subtracting anything from the blonde's Life Points but with two of Other Yugi's most powerful cards out on the field it would be difficult to overcome them and yet I noticed that Jounouchi didn't look too worried about this fact at all.

"I thought as much, this is all a part of Jounouchi-kun's plan," Bakura acknowledged. Honda claimed that this couldn't be the truth since his monsters were getting beaten left and right but our white haired companion shook his head. "No… I'm sure it's more than that. Jounouchi-kun was trying to lure Yugi-kun out and make him lose focus by playing a mediocre card from his hand. He knew his opponent wasn't going to play a strong monster from the start so he played Armour Lizard in order to force him to," Bakura theorised.

"I agree with Bakura, but it's more than that. I'm betting Jounouchi was gambling on it being the Demon's Summon that Yugi threw out," Katherine stated. As she did Jounouchi actually stated that he wanted Other Yugi to have summon out the Demon's Summon – proving my sister right – and he was going to return the advice that Other Yugi had given to him earlier.

The blonde seemed extraordinarily confident in whatever strategy he had come up with and proceeded to make his move by summoning out his trusted Flame Swordsman despite the fact that it was weaker that both of Other Yugi's monsters and it appeared all – bar Pegasus – were curious about this move.

 **Flame Swordsman – Attribute: Fire, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

However the reason soon became clear when Jounouchi held up a spell that we had become rather familiar with, Shield and Sword, the blonde then proceeded to throw the card onto the podium activating its' effects and changing the tide of this duel once more.

 **Gaia the Dark Knight – ATK/2300 – ATK/2100, DEF/2100 – DEF/2300**

 **Demon's Summon – ATK/2500 – ATK/1200, DEF/1200 – DEF/2500**

 **Flame Swordsman – ATK/1800 – ATK/1600, DEF/1600 – DEF/1800**

Thanks to Shield and Sword, Flame Swordsman was now powerful enough to take on the Demon's Summon and so Jounouchi swiftly ordered the mighty warrior to attack the Fiend, after a bit of light hearted taunting from Jounouchi to Other Yugi, the Demon's Summon was easily destroyed by the fire that had been unleashed by Jounouchi's monster and then the effect of Shield and Sword ended.

 **Yugi – LP: 1550 – LP: 1150**

 **Gaia the Dark Knight – ATK/2100 – ATK/2300, DEF/2300 – DEF/2100**

 **Flame Swordsman – ATK/1600 – ATK/1800, DEF/1800 – DEF/1600**

"So the Armour Lizard really was bait to lure my Demon's Summon," Other Yugi acknowledged. Jounouchi claimed that the only way to defeat Other Yugi in a duel was to take the match one monster at a time, slowly whittling down his fighting options. "You really have grown Jounouchi-kun, that was a splendid combination of Spell and Monster cards," Other Yugi praised.

With the level of skill that both of these duelists possessed it was no surprise that this duel had already seen a few twists making it hard to predict how it would all turn out in the end, friends and family made the best opponents because they would push you to your limits and beyond, I had only gotten this good because of my constant duels against Seto, Katherine and the other select few I truly called friend… no doubt the two duelists below counted among them.

Jounouchi dared the strange spirit to come at him and so Other Yugi kindly obliged by bringing out a familiar monster onto the field and recalling the very first duel I had witnessed Other Yugi participating in, I had a suspicion about where this trail was leading.

 **Curse of Dragon: - Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1500**

"And then with the Fusion card, I fuse Curse of Dragon with Gaia the Dark Knight!" Other Yugi declared. Jounouchi was shocked by this move and also seemed to be slightly worried as well, the two creatures swirled together forming into the mighty creature that I had seen Other Yugi only summon out once before.

 **Gaia the Dragon Knight – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon/Fusion, Level: ,7 ATK/2600, DEF/2100**

With the use of such a powerful monster at his side, it hardly came as a shock when Other Yugi immediately initiated an attack against Jounouchi's Flame Swordsman thus annihilating the opposing warrior turning it into holographic shards thus turning the tide of this duel once more.

 **Joey – LP: 1550 – LP: 750**

"What a fierce attack… Yugi-kun has been observing how Jounouchi-kun plays up until now, his playing pattern. But it looks like he's finally gotten serious," Bakura commented. Honda claimed that Jounouchi wouldn't want it any other way but Bakura added on they were fighting instinct against instinct since they both wanted to win with Anzu still proving to be stupid by questioning why the two boys had to fight anyway.

"Because they have to," I stated. The two inexperienced individuals made sounds of confusion but that was simple fact, it was luck of the draw that Other Yugi and Jounouchi were forced to face off against each other in this tournament instead of having to deal with only me and my sister. "This duel is the best thing for the both of them in the long run," I added on.

"When you face someone you care about and respect just as Yugi and Jounouchi do, it ends up forcing each other to improve because you must remain clam and think on your feet. After this match I wouldn't be surprised if both came out a more well-rounded and polished duelist than when they went in," Katherine admitted.

Bakura agreed with my little sister's analysis of the current situation claiming that by pushing each other to their very limits it at the very least ensured that whoever advanced to the finals would be more ready to face off against Pegasus than before.

"You can sure as hell bet we'll do the same to whoever we face, there's no point holding back if the person who wins isn't ready to face Pegasus," I stated. The fate of Seto, Mokuba and Yugi's grandfather rested on the victory of myself, Katherine, Yugi or Jounouchi because if any of us lost against Pegasus then that was it since I wasn't sure if there was any other way for a soul to be saved.

Jounouchi drew a card from his deck and then glanced that those in his hand appearing to carefully analyse them in order to determine a strategy that would allow him to successfully defeat the Dragon Knight, it appeared he had worked something out as a smile worked its' way onto the knucklehead's face.

"Yugi, you know I think I might be a genius here, I just came up with a way to defeat your Dragon Knight!" Jounouchi declared. Other Yugi questioned Jounouchi on this whilst the rest of us waited to see what move would be made, Jounouchi proceeded to summon out his now signature monster Red-Eyes Black Dragon but I didn't quite see how this would let Jounouchi defeat Other Yugi's Dragon Knight as he had so declared.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

However my curiosity was soon sated when Jounouchi played the Trap Grave Robber in order to claim a card from Other Yugi's Graveyard thus allowing the blonde to claim ownership of Demon's Summon and with a quick flash of his Mimic Illusionist card, it was easy to tell exactly where this play was going, Jounouchi intended to bring out the monster that had secured victory against the Labyrinth Brothers.

"I fuse the Demon's Summon with the Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" Jounouchi commanded. With the usage of Other Yugi's Polymerisation through the power of Mimic Illusionist, the two creatures swirled together fusing into the beast we had seen before as it let out a fierce roar, Black Demon's Dragon.

 **Black Demon's Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon/Fusion, Level: 9, ATK/3200, DEF/2500**

Pegasus began to clap at the site of the two fusions ready to face off against one another and unless Other Yugi had a Quick-Play Spell or Trap in his hand ready to go it was quite clear that Black Demon's Dragon would be the victory in this fight as Jounouchi commanded his fusion to attack.

The Molten Fire Ball formed within its' maw and was swiftly unleashed but Other Yugi did nothing – or rather couldn't do anything – to protect his Dragon Knight thus resulting in its' destruction and the severe loss of Life Points for Other Yugi.

 **Yugi – LP: 1150 – LP: 550**

"Damn, I can barely keep up with how many times the tide has changed within this duel," I muttered. Jounouchi was elated over his accomplishment probably barely able to believe it himself despite having the front row seat to the monster's destruction whilst Other Yugi remained quiet as Jounouchi spoke although the blonde claimed he now understood the true fun of dueling.

"That's right. This is a true duel Jounouchi-kun," Other Yugi responded. If there was one thing I learned about Other Yugi it was that he always had something planned up his sleeve and I wanted to see how the boy would move his way out of this situation.

"Now things get serious," I spoke. There was no chance that Other Yugi was going to let this slide by unpunished yet with only a two hundred point difference between them and the skill Jounouchi had displayed so far it was impossible to tell whose duel this could be.


	29. Chapter 29

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 29: - Best of Friends, Best of Duelists (II)

No one that was watching this duel could deny that the duel between Other Yugi and Jounouchi was very intense as neither was willing to hold back in this duel which meant this match could end either way, this was honestly one of the closest matches that I had ever witnessed and it only made my desire to face Other Yugi grow even more.

We knew that neither boy was willing to give up so easily in this match and it was anyone's guess who would walk away the victor in the end, Other Yugi reached out to his deck and withdrew a card from it, when he looked at the card an inquisitive look appeared on his face with Jounouchi asking Other Yugi if he wanted to give up which nearly made me laugh since that was probably the last thing that would ever happen.

"No this turn, I'll use this card. Black Magician in attack mode!" Other Yugi announced. The mighty spellcaster appeared on the field ready to do as his master commanded in this battle, yet despite this unwavering loyalty Black Magician was hardly capable of taking on Black Demon's Dragon without a power boost.

 **Dark Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

"Yugi's Black Magician finally came out but you can't fight my Black Demon's Dragon," Jounouchi boasted. Despite this Other Yugi wasn't fazed in the least even asking if Jounouchi was sure about that. "In front of a strong attack monster, if you put it in attack mode it'll become the target. That's what you said," Jounouchi taunted.

Other Yugi reminded Jounouchi of another lesson that he had been taught, which had also been repeated by both duelists in this duel already, a combination of both Spell and monster cards and this caused Jounouchi to panic as Other Yugi activated the Spell Magical Silk Hats thus shrouding the spellcaster from our sight as duplicates were created to fill up other spaces.

"Well that'll at least slow Jounouchi down for a bit allowing Yugi to come up with a strategy," Katherine commented. Other Yugi dared his opponent to make a guess as to where the Black Magician could possibly be hiding, from Jounouchi expression it was clear that he had hoped to have finished the duel before that Spell card had been played.

Jounouchi didn't hesitate for much longer as he ordered his dragon to attack destroying one of the hats and sending up a small cloud of smoke for a moment but once it faded away, all of us felt a little relief when it turned out that Jounouchi's guess had been wrong.

With three hats left and a turn to come up with a plan it was clear that the tide of this duel was turning once more in Other Yugi's favour as it had been proven that giving Other Yugi any time to recover was a bad move since he always found some way out of a mess and that meant that Jounouchi could lose this duel because of it.

Other Yugi then proceeded to ask about what Jounouchi had proclaimed earlier, how he would destroy Other Yugi's monsters one by one, the blonde haired boy claimed he didn't want the duel to end too quickly and so Jounouchi used this opportunity to summon out Garoozis in attack mode.

 **Garoozis – Attribute: Fire, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1500**

The move that Jounouchi had made was so damn obvious it was almost too embarrassing to watch, by playing Garoozis it was clear that Jounouchi wanted Other Yugi to attack the weaker monster with the Black Magician thus forcing it out of hiding and leaving it vulnerable to attack by the Black Demon's Dragon.

Despite the fact that by attacking and destroying Garoozis, Jounouchi would have been left with only fifty Life Points if Other Yugi had taken the bait then he would have lost the duel although Anzu's stupidity shined through when she only caught onto half of the situation which was the half that correlated with Jounouchi's Life Points.

Thankfully Bakura explained this to her before I snapped at this stupid brunette once again, she was beginning to really grate on my nerves, as was true to his nature as a skilled duelist Other Yugi did not fall for the obvious bait and instead opted to lay a single card face down onto the field thus hiding something else within the Magical Hats.

Jounouchi was clearly annoyed that his trap had failed as Other Yugi tempted him to take a chance on another hat, Jounouchi seemed to be in deep thought for a while as he tried to puzzle out exactly what Other Yugi could have possibly hidden underneath the hats, eventually Jounouchi declared another attack upon the hats with Black Demon's Dragon.

The hat was destroyed leaving only the two at the very ends of Other Yugi's side of the field, this hat proved to be empty as well which meant that no matter which hat Jounouchi attacked next time he was bound to hit something with each target having its' own risk since the hidden card was an unknown variable in this match.

I noticed that Pegasus seemed to have a dark look on his face as he observed the match almost as if he was only half interested in the match but that was hardly any surprise since he'd be more interested in the finals to see who his opponent would be and learn their strategies but at the same time I couldn't be sure as it almost seemed like he was lost in thought.

For his turn Other Yugi simply drew a card from his deck and then passed his turn thus turning it over to Jounouchi, now it was a fifty-fifty chance of Jounouchi actually managing to find the Black Magician although there was also the risk of him hitting whatever else had been hidden, the blonde refused to run from the match since he wasn't facing a regular duelist and so he ordered Black Demon's Dragon to attack the hat on Other Yugi's far right.

"Curse of Hexagram!" Other Yugi declared. As he spoke the deadly trap rose up from within the smoke and flew forward locking itself around the Black Skull Dragon thus forcing its' power to be significantly weakened in the process.

 **Black Skull Dragon – ATK/3200 – ATK/2500**

Jounouchi realised the danger he was in and knew how much danger he'd be in if both of his monsters were in attack mode so he swiftly switched Garoozis into defence mode since Curse of Hexagram prevented Black Demon's Dragon from changing its' battle position.

"Next is my turn Jounouchi-kun," Other Yugi reminded. Jounouchi was clearly annoyed by this turn of events, however even if Other Yugi attacked with the Black Magician all it would result in would be for both monsters to be destroyed, stripping both of them of their powerful monsters and leaving Other Yugi defenceless.

"Jounouchi-kun you're the **ideal** opponent for me to go all out on," Other Yugi declared. Had anyone not been looking, which many of them weren't, then they would have seen Pegasus push back the curtain of hair allowing me to see his Millennium Eye as it glowed, clearly prying into the minds of the two duelists to see if they were holding back.

Other Yugi made his move by declaring that he would obliterate Jounouchi's precious Dragon and soon proved exactly how he would accomplish such a thing by playing the Equip Spell known as Book of Secret Arts which would raise Black Magician's attack and defence power, the more impressive feat was that it was also the card he had just drawn from his deck.

 **Black Magician – ATK/2500 – ATK/2800, DEF/2100 – DEF/2400**

With a stronger attacking force at his disposal, Other Yugi promptly had the mighty Spellcaster attack the chained Black Demon's Dragon thus removing that threat from Jounouchi's field and successfully lowering Jounouchi's Life Points so that now there was only one hundred points difference between them and now Other Yugi was in the lead.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 750 – LP: 450**

Pegasus clapped his hands and congratulated Other Yugi for his accomplishment however now it was time to see if Jounouchi would be able to find a way back at all or if Other Yugi would maintain control of the duel for the rest of the match.

"Jounouchi, you did great getting this far but you can't go anymore," Honda claimed. Upon hearing those words I let out ah um as I moved my head from side to side whilst Katherine pressed the index finger of her left hand to her lips whilst she thought which was exactly what I was doing as well, this caused the other three to look at us in confusion.

"It's hard to say really, at the moment it does seem that Yugi has the advantage in this game but…," I spoke trailing off. Katherine nodded her head agreeing with the same thoughts that I had most likely been thinking however none of the other three caught on to where my words were actually leading.

"But it all depends on how well Jounouchi plays **now**. So to speak, Jounouchi needs to find the kinks in Yugi's armour and exploit them if he wants to win," Katherine finished off. The other three spectators understood what the two of us were meaning thanks to Katherine's explanation.

Jounouchi seemed to be nearing the verge of giving up believing that he couldn't come back from the blow that Other Yugi had just dealt to him however Jounouchi's closed eyes suddenly flew open almost as if he had been hit by some sudden epiphany and the normal determination that shone within the boy's eyes came back in full force.

Jounouchi slammed his hand on top of his deck but this was in no way a surrender as he drew a card free from the deck and when he looked at it, Jounouchi's eyes widened upon seeing the artwork that was upon the surface then he played the card allowing us to see that Jounouchi had called upon his Baby Dragon in attack mode.

 **Baby Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 3, ATK/1200, DEF/900**

However Jounouchi didn't end his turn there as he proceeded to throw a card face down in the Spell and Trap zone, from all the time I'd seen Jounouchi play that move then it was naturally to assume that the face down card was Time Magician and Other Yugi would no doubt assume that same thing.

"No way, that's too simple," Katherine muttered. I looked down at my sister seeing her eyes keenly observing the duel whilst her eyebrows furrowed causing her forehead to crease slightly as she seemed deep in thought about the current play of the duel that we were watching.

Both Other Yugi and Jounouchi had seen each other duel numerous times so their knowledge was each other's decks and moves were quite vast but at the same time the person might actually be able to use that knowledge to their advantage by pretending a move was one thing when it truly was another, all us spectators could do were wait to see what would happen.

"Battle! Black Magician attack Baby Dragon!" Other Yugi commanded. The spellcaster unleashed his Black Magic towards Baby Dragon however instead of managing to destroy the little dragon, Jounouchi revealed that he had actually laid a trap by revealing the face down card was in fact Chain Attached Boomerang, this allowed Jounouchi to stop the attack and increase Garoozis' attack power.

 **Garoozis – ATK/1800 – ATK/2300**

It seemed Jounouchi's play had actually been a bluff and now that left Other Yugi unable to stop Jounouchi from utilising his Baby Dragon-Time Magician combo, the two duelists agreed that this blindside move had brought this duel into the ending part of its' time.

After both duelists agreed that the duel would cause no hard feelings between the both of them, the blonde proceeded to actually play the Time Magician – which he had just pulled from his deck – causing the clockwork monster to appear on the field as Jounouchi commanded it to use its' Special Effect.

 **Time Magician – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 2, ATK/500, DEF/400**

With baited breath everyone watched as the arrow on the sceptre began to spin around and around picking up speed and then gradually slowing down until eventually the arrow landed on one of the time machine symbols causing Time Magic to activate thus aging Baby Dragon into its' Thousand Dragon form whilst turning Black Magician into a decrepit old man.

 **Thousand Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

Due to the effect of Time Magic, the Chain Attached Boomerang had lost its' effect thus allowing it to crumble into dust however that hardly mattered since Black Magician's attack power had plummeted all the way down to a measly one hundred points.

With that attack power there was absolutely no way that the Black Magician could stand up against the strength of Thousand Dragon however Spellcaster-type monsters didn't solely rely on attack power as their true strength was in any Special Effect that they might possess, I'd never seen Black Magician aged a thousand years and from the glint in the magician's eyes we would soon find out if those years had been a waste or not.

Despite the clear advantage that Jounouchi had it seemed that he was shell shocked by what he had managed to achieve as with a single attack then Jounouchi would be able to defeat Other Yugi and progress onto the finals with a very real chance of gaining the money necessary for his sister by his own strength, Jounouchi finally recovered and ordered his dragon to attack.

"I counter with Magical Mist, Makiu!" Other Yugi declared. I gaped in shock as the mystical spell rained down onto the duel arena thus dousing the attack from Thousand Dragon and protecting Black Magician from the attack but I was extremely confused and so were Jounouchi and Katherine.

"Hold it Yugi! How did you play Makiu when its' Jounouchi's turn, it isn't a Quick Play Spell or out on your field?" I protested. The other three spectators and even Pegasus were confused but only a Quick Play Spell or Trap could be used to protect a monster during the opponent's turn yet Makiu was a Normal type so it shouldn't have been possible, also there had been no other cards out on Other Yugi's field when the attack had been launched.

"Normally that would be correct Kylie however over the thousand years that passed my Black Magician has learned powerful magic. That Time Warp did age my Black Magician but it made him stronger not weaker and with age comes great wisdom, a thousand years of wisdom that have transformed him into the Black-Clothed Great Sage," Other Yugi explained.

 **Black-Clothed Great Sage – Attribute: Dark, Type : Spellcaster/Effect, Level: 9, ATK/100, DEF/?**

Jounouchi's hope that the Time Magician would be able to end this duel on that very turn and in his victory had been dashed thanks to the might powers that the Black Sage possessed since it allowed Other Yugi to play any Spell card no matter if it was his turn or his opponent's turn and with no other moves available to him Jounouchi was forced to end his turn.

"Now during my turn, I'll be able to add a new Spell card to my hand," Other Yugi explained. He lifted up his deck and looked through it before selecting a spell card and then shuffling the deck once more so that he didn't have an unfair advantage as tears gathered in his eyes. "Thanks to the power of the Black Sage, I can now use a Spell card!" Other Yugi declared as tears fell down his face.

The card that had been selected was Resurrection of the Dead and this allowed Other Yugi to summon back the Black Demon's Dragon onto his field, realising that he had lost this duel a single tear fell down Jounouchi's face but that didn't stop the small smile that curved its' way onto the blonde's face because he had played a great duel and should be proud of what he had accomplished.

"Come on, Yugi!" Joey encouraged. It was brilliant to see that their friendship hadn't been shattered by the fact that they were forced to face off against each other; Other Yugi nodded and commanded the Black Demon's Dragon to attack Thousand Dragon with Molten Fire Ball.

 **Joey – LP: 450 – LP: 0**

"They really didn't hold back," Honda admitted. The brunette boy was correct and I had to admit that this was the first time I'd ever seen two friends face each other in a duel and still maintain a strong friendship, normally a duel ended up tearing friends apart but since this was different it was actually rather difficult to watch that move and it was probably even worse for Other Yugi to had to execute such a move.

Anzu began to cry and claim that she now could understand the duel she had been watching and the reason why but I don't think she truly understood… she wasn't a duelist after all; now with the first semi-final match out of the way it was time for my match, I pushed off the balcony rail and looked down at Katherine who was staring back at me.

"Alright Katherine, it's time," I stated. Katherine nodded then reached down to her pouch and withdrew her deck with me doing the same thus allowing us to trade decks; we proceeded to do several complicated shuffles until certain that neither could read the deck during out match and returned the decks to their true owner.

"To a good duel," Katherine commented. As she did her right hand reached out so I quickly interwove my right hand with hers so that no one would look at the golden metal on her hand, we shared a smile and then dropped hands as we descended down the stairs towards the arena.


	30. Chapter 30

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 30: - Champion VS. Champion, Sister VS. Sister

I stepped out onto the blue podium staring at my sister as we placed our decks onto the podiums with a firm look coming from my younger sister showing that she was going to give this duel everything she had despite believing that I would be the victor in this match.

" _You better Get Your Game on Kathie because I'm not going easy_ ," I called in English. Katherine smiled as she withdrew her hand from her deck so I proceeded to do the same and saw that the hand I had drawn was a decent one to start with but I didn't allow that to show on my face as I waited for Katherine to respond.

" _I know that Kylie and I won go easy either. Here's the proof._ I summon out Queen of Marriage, Hera in defence mode!" Katherine declared at first in English before switching to Japanese as she made her move. She threw out the card that she had chosen to make the first move of the duel with the chosen monster being projected onto the field.

Hera was as seemingly beautiful as Aphrodite but in the way an untouchable statue was beautiful, her skin was alabaster white with chestnut brown hair pulled into a regal bun and cold angry indigo eyes starred at me, she wore a white Grecian dress embraided with golden thread fit for the queen of the Gods as gold jewellery embedded with pearls and sapphires decorated her head, necklace and wrists as a peacock lay nestled at her feet.

 **Queen of Marriage, Hera – Attribute: Light, Type: Fairy, Level: 5, ATK/1900, DEF/2500**

"I end my turn with two face downs, now come and get me Kylie!" Katherine taunted. I loved dueling my sister during tournaments because it was the only time I could see the girl who had grown up with me, with a smile on my face I proceeded to draw a card from my deck and looked at it before sliding the card onto the podium.

"To start I lay one card face down," I began. I then lifted my hand back up and took a hold of a card that lay within my hand before pulling it free. "Then I summon out Ursa Major in attack mode," I continued. The monster was projected onto the field initially as a cluster of stars before reforming into a bear with purple fur, sharp obsidian claws and eyes that reflected the night.

 **Ursa Major – Attribute: Dark, Type: Beast, Level: 6, ATK/2500, DEF/2700**

"Ursa Major attack Queen of Marriage, Hera with Cosmic Claw!" I commanded. It was always hard to tell what Katherine played when she set any face downs but the best way to counter those moves was to attack with a monster that was equal strength thus preventing the Traps or Spells from being activated.

Ursa Major cleaved through Hera but as the bestial entity did so Hera's hand reached up and seized Ursa Major's neck as lines of light cracked across the bear's form before the two were obliterated thus ending this fight in a draw causing Katherine's lips to curve downwards in a frown whilst my free hand hovered over the podium waiting for any activation but nothing came causing me to sigh in relief as I ended my turn.

"What to do? What to do?" Katherine hummed. She drew a card from her deck and looked over the cards at she had at her disposal as the sound of her gloved hand tapped against the surface of her podium causing a faint clink sound to echo through the room as she was in deep thought about the next move that she had to make

"Damn, the tension between these two could be cut with a knife," Jounouchi commented. The blonde knucklehead couldn't be anymore right, things were always tense between me and Katherine whenever we duel, it came from the years of facing off against each other and learning the tricks of each other as well as our own.

"This is unbelievable, I thought the duel between Yugi-kun and Jounouchi-kun was intense but this is simply on a whole different level," Bakura added on. Katherine finally took a hold of a card in her hand and drew it forth thus showing that she was intending to play this card into the duel although I did wonder what it could possibly be.

"My turn, I summon out Twin of Moon Artemis in attack mode!" Katherine announced. A young girl was projected onto the field with skin as white as pearls and rich pure black hair that was pulled into a tight braid, as calm silver grey eyes starred out at the field, she wore a simple knee-length chiton with a hunting dog and stag nestled at her feet.

 **Twin of Moon, Artemis – Attribute: Light, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/2000, DEF/2000**

"I'm not done there, I activate the Equip Spell, Bow of Moon which increases Artemis' attack points by four hundred," Katherine added. The Spell card activated causing Artemis to raise her hands as silver light shot forward before forming into a bow made from silvery wood with a quiver full of arrows tied to her waist.

 **Twin of Moon, Artemis – ATK/2000 – ATK/2400**

Katherine ended her turn so I took the opportunity to analyse the situation that was currently before me whilst those above on the balcony continued talking about the duel that they were watching mainly about how it seemed more like a game of chess than a game of Duel Monsters.

Hearing that comparison nearly made me want to laugh, before getting interested in Duel Monsters after being introduced to it Katherine had been an avid chess player and still was, her history as a chess player bled into how she dueled and I saw Katherine biting down on her lip clearing attempting to stop her own laughter.

Knowing I had to get on with the duel I drew a card from my deck and began to debate on the move that I had to make, Katherine's face downs could still potentially be Traps meant to deal damage to me if I attempted an attack so I had to take precautions before attempting to take any aggressive actions against my sister's monsters.

"Alright Kathie, my turn. I activate the Spell Heavy Storm which destroys all Spells and Traps on the field!" I announced. As I made my move by slapping the card against the podium causing the whirling destructive storm to surge across the entire arena causing Katherine to raise her arms in order to protect her face as Bow of Moon, Katherine's two face downs and my own face down were destroyed.

 **Twin of Moon, Artemis – ATK/2400 – ATK/2000**

"Now I summon out Canis Major," I decided. As with all my monsters a cluster of stars was what appeared at first before creating a solid form this time of an canine beast with ebony fur that was speckled with silvery grey patches as pearly white teeth peaked out from underneath its' jaws. "Now attack Artemis with Jaws of Heaven!" I commanded. Since Canis Major was stronger, Artemis was easily destroyed by the attack with a scream of pain coming from the huntress so I ended my turn with a face down.

 **Canis Major – Attribute: Dark, Type: Beast, Level: 6, ATK/2300, DEF/1900**

 **Katherine – LP: 2000 – LP: 1700**

"Don't get cocky sister! I'm not letting you win so easily, come forth Ruler of the Underworld, Hades in attack mode!" Katherine counter. Dark eerie smoke appeared on Katherine's field before dispersing allowing me to see the monster she'd summoned, his skin was pale with deep obsidian eyes and neatly kept shoulder length obsidian hair which contrasted his pale skin, he wore a black toga with a golden crown seated within his hair.

 **Ruler of the Underworld, Hade – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 8, ATK/2600, DEF/2650**

"First off I'm going to activate Hades' Special Effect. You know what that mean Kylie, I discard my entire hand but you lose one thousand Life Points," Katherine announced. I twisted my lips into a frown not because of the cost but because Katherine was about to take a chunk out of my Life Points. "I thank you my cards for this sacrifice," Katherine whispered. She said those words as she placed her hand into the Graveyard.

In response to this Hades raised his arms allowing more eerie black smoke to appear within the gap between his hands before it surged towards me speeding passed Canis Major and proceeded to wrap tightly around me almost as if the smoke was attempting to choke me, had this been a Shadow Game I would have trouble breathing since I'd seen the effect under those conditions before.

 **Kylie – LP: 2000 – LP: 1000**

"You got to be kidding me, with one move Katherine just snatched the lead back. These sisters sure aren't kidding about not holding back against each other, this is crazy!" Honda exclaimed. The mist receded as Hades' lowered his arms however I knew that the turn wasn't going to end simply after Katherine activated the Special Effect.

"Now Ruler of the Underworld, Hades attack Canis Major with Metal of the Underworld!" Katherine declared. Her monster touched the ground and threw his hand forward sending spikes of metal flying out towards Canis Major so I grabbed the card I had thrown out last turn and proceeded to activate the card in order to stop the attack from destroying Canis Major and taking any more of my Life Points.

"I don't think so Kathie! Trap card activate! Starlight Wrath! When a Dark Attribute monster attacks, this card blocks the attack and then lowers the attack and defence points of the attacking monster by three hundred!" I retaliated. Flashes of brilliant light appeared in front of Canis Major blocking the attack before they flew forward piercing into Hades and stripping him of his power, forcing Katherine to end her turn.

 **Ruler of the Underworld, Hades – ATK/2600 – ATK/2300, DEF/2650 – DEF/2350**

"Alright my turn, I summon out Lynx in attack mode," I decided. The cat-like monster appeared on the field clearly ready to pounce on the weakened god that stood across from him. "Lynx attacks Ruler of the Underworld, Hades with Volt Charge!" I announced. The beast proceeded to charge across the arena before leaping into the air as lightning crackled across his body as Lynx lashed out with claws, easily ripping through the weakened monster as I lay a card face down.

 **Lynx – Attribute: Light, Type: Beast/Thunder, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2100**

 **Katherine – LP:1700 – LP: 1600**

"Incredible, despite being stripped of half her Life Points, Kylie-san hasn't lost her composure in the least. She easily countered Katherine-san's attack, weakened her monster then destroyed it lowering Katherine-san's Life Points even if only by a bit," Bakura commented. Katherine's eyes were hard as she stared at me clearly running through the various scenarios within her head as to how she was going to counter my move.

"This duel shows why Kylie-san gained the Intercontinental Championship, but Katherine-chan is also skilled, we can't count her out yet," Yugi rebuked. I restrained a smile, hearing the gentle boy speak so highly of my sister had been rather nice but my smile came from the fact that Katherine was attempting to suppress a blush as she drew a card from her deck.

"It's my move Kylie. First off, I activate the Spell, Treasure Cards From the Heavens. This means that we draw until both of us have six cards in our hands," Katherine informed. Both of us reached out to our decks and drew the required number of cards to reach six before I turned my attention back to Katherine. "Then I summon out Maiden of Wisdom, Athena!" Katherine declared.

She proceeded to play the card allowing the being to be projected revealing an adult woman with brown hair that could be see barely peeking out from underneath the bronze helmet she wore which had a blue plumage attached to it and her eyes were a steely grey shade, the woman wore an ancient Grecian style dress with bronze armour at the top, bronze armbands on both wrists with a spear resting in her left hand and a golden shield over her right which bore the head of a snake haired woman.

 **Maiden of Wisdom, Athena – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 8, ATK/2800, DEF/2700**

"I play one card face down and have Athena attack Canis Major with Spear of Battle!" Katherine declared. Athena lifted her spear up with the tip pointed directly at the chosen target as energy wrapped around the weapon whilst the female warrior adjusted her stance in order to throw it, Athena reeled her arm back and then proceeded to send the spear flying towards my canine monster so I grabbed the card that was face down on my field and flipped it over.

"Attack Nullification!" I countered. The spear throw was prevented from destroying either of my monsters thus saving them however it seemed that Katherine wasn't going to be letting me get away uninjured anymore as she immediately threw out a card onto the field but didn't activate it clearly intending to wait for the opportune moment to activate it.

I lifted a card from my deck as I clicked my tongue against my teeth trying to think of what move to make as I looked over the cards that I had thus the combos that I could create in order to take down my sister's favourite monster whose eyes remained firmly locked onto my field as both she and her master waited for me to make a move.

"Alright, I summon forth Andromeda," I calmly announced. With those words I slid the card onto the podium allowing my partner to be projected onto the field, Athena and Andromeda facing off against each other wasn't a rare occurrence since it happened at least once every time me and Katherine ended up dueling.

 **Andromeda – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2600, DEF/2300**

"Trap card activate! Magic Torch! This card destroys one of your cards and then inflicts five hundred points of damage to your Life Points," Katherine retaliated. Per the card's name a burning torch appeared in the arena and the fire surged forward wrapping around Canis Major and destroying the canine thus subtracting more from my Life Points.

 **Kylie – LP: 1000 – LP: 500**

"That doesn't matter Katherine, this duel ends now!" I declared. Katherine's face was calm and stoic the complete opposite of her normally cheerful or flustered expressions but I simply had to show exactly what I mean and so I withdrew the card that I would need to start the combo. "First I'm activating the Equip Spell Black Pendant and adding it to Andromeda," I began.

 **Andromeda – ATK/2600 – ATK/3100**

"However that power up won't last for long, because I activate Cyclone and use it to destroy the Black Pendant, that means you take five hundred points of damage!" I announced. The whirling winds erupted from the card and spiralled over to Andromeda ripping the necklace from around her neck before holographic shards flew down towards Katherine deducting her Life Points.

 **Andromeda – ATK/3100 – ATK/2600**

 **Katherine – LP: 1600 – LP: 1100**

"Ok… what the hell is Kylie up to? That move doesn't make any sense," Jounouchi commented. It might seem like my move doesn't make much sense but it was all a part of the plan that I had come up with during this turn when the necessary cards had appeared in my hand thanks to Katherine's Treasure Card allowing me to draw them.

"Perhaps, but Kylie-san doesn't seem to be a bluffing type and Katherine-san clear isn't mocking her implying that she is taking the threat of her own sister's words very seriously," Bakura argued. The white haired boy had a keen eye to be able to see the different aspects of the duelists' feelings at this point of our match but now wasn't the time to be bothered which such a thing.

"Now for the final move I activate the Spell card, Ara. You know what this means Katherine," I stated. Katherine's lips curved into a frown whilst the audience gasped clearly remembering the duel they had stumbled on two days ago. "By sacrificing Andromeda you're dealt half her attack points as damage!" I declared. Andromeda became engulfed in light and flew towards Katherine with Athena unable to prevent the strike, the light slammed into my sister thus ending this duel.

 **Katherine – LP: 1100 – LP: 0**

"With this, the Finals are set. Muto Yugi will face Kylie Hope to decide who will face Master Pegasus for the Championship title," Crocketts stated. Katherine cheerfully smiled and shrugged her shoulders at the result as she picked up her deck and cradled it to her heart before slipping it away. "There will be a ten minute break before the final match is held," Crocketts informed.

I would have preferred for the duel to start right away but a brief period to prepare wasn't too bad so I picked up my deck and left the duel arena to prepare; I did this by finding a spot in the corridor to rest my back against as I sat on the floor, my head was tilted back slightly with one leg bent at the knee as the other was stretched out whilst my hands lay atop my bent knee, my eyes proceeded to slide close as I emptied my mind of unnecessary thoughts.

"Kylie-san," Yugi's voice called. I opened my eyes and turned my head slightly to look at the young boy who was standing across from me looking rather nervous and somewhat unsettled. "We're about to duel and I jus-," Yugi began to speak. However I raised my hand in order to stop him from talking and fixed the young boy with a stern look.

"Yugi, I'm not giving up and I refuse to go easy on you, or rather on the Other You. I promised him we'd duel and we're going to. I understand how much is riding on this duel for you but if I hold back then there's no chance of you being able to defeat Pegasus," I spoke. My hand lowered to the floor as I drew my outstretched leg in allowing me to push myself up so that I could stand across from the boy.

"I'm going to warn you and the Other You right now. You haven't seen my powerful monster, he don't need a Shadow Game to be able to affect this world, that is how powerful he is and I only bring him out for special occasions so you will have to be prepared because Pegasus will have dangerously powerful monsters tucked away as well," I warned. Yugi's eyes widened in shock not having expected such words to come from me, I proceeded to walk passed the boy only to stop a few short steps behind him.

"I suggest that you and your spirit friend prepare," I finished. With that I walked off so that I could find a quiet place in order to prepare myself for the duel that would decide who went on to face Pegasus and hopefully rescue the souls of those that Pegasus had imprisoned so cruelly.


	31. Chapter 31

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 31: - The Queen of Duelists

With my victory over Katherine and Yugi's victory over Jounouchi it was now time for me and Yugi to have our duel in order to find out which one of us would advance to the final round and face off against Pegasus; the two of us stood across from one another waiting for the moment to start this, Crocketts announced that Pegasus wanted to give some words and the man that caused this chaos stood up.

"The two of you have done well winning and making it this far. This will be a battle to determine who earns the privilege of challenging me. So go forth and fight on with everything you've got! Because if you don't … I will know," Pegasus spoke. Almost as if to emphasis those words a faint gleam came off of his Millennium Eye that was still hidden by the curtain of hair covering the left half of his face.

With that out of the way I turned back to look at the young boy across from me who allowed the power of his Millennium Puzzle to activate and now I was facing my true opponent who locked his piercing ruby eyes on me as I allowed a smile to split across my face whilst raising my deck.

"It seems the time has come for us to face off, I'm going to enjoy this match greatly. Just so you know even if you lose, I promise to save the trapped souls," I spoke up. Other Yugi appeared to be surprised before a smirk came to rest on his face as he also raised his deck.

"I've been waiting for this duel for some time Kylie and thank you for your offer but I don't intend to lose," Other Yugi responded. The two of us placed our decks onto the podiums allowing our Life Points to be rolled out. "It's time to duel!" Other Yugi declared. I allowed a smile to cross my face at the fighting spirit my opponent possessed which was burning quite beautifully.

 **Kylie – LP: 2000**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

"You better Get Your Game On, love," I commented. With that I proceeded to draw my first hand along with Other Yugi, looking over my cards before selecting one. "First off I summon Scorpius in defence mode and lay one card face down," I announced. The bronze scorpion looking creature appeared on the feel with its' legs curled under, claws crossed in front and stinger at the ready.

 **Scorpius – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level: 3, ATK/1100, DEF/1200**

"I summon Elf Swordsman in attack mode," Other Yugi announced. It was quite clear to see where this might be going although he did take some time to observe the face down card I had played before raising his head up. "Elf Swordsman attack Scorpius!" Other Yugi ordered.

 **Elf Swordsman – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

"You shouldn't have done that," I practically sung. The elven warrior charged forward with his sword being drawn however I smirked and proceeded to flip my face down card over thus activating. "I activate my trap Astrological Gift, this allows my Scorpius to gain three hundred attack and defence points so your attack backfires," I revealed.

 **Scorpius – ATK/1100 – ATK/1400, DEF/1200 – DEF/1500**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1900**

Other Yugi's lips pulled into a slight frown whilst I smiled pleased that I had been able to twist my opponent's move against him so I reached out and pulled out another card from my deck looking at it before turning my attention to the field analysing my surroundings, then I raised my emerald eyes to look at the ruby-eyed mystery before me.

"I do hope you're looking at me gorgeous. Because if you're more focused on Pegasus… then I'm going to crush you like a gnat and make it painful," I called out. Other Yugi proceeded to look at me with and eyebrow arcing slightly as a smirk came to rest on his face almost as if he was taking some enjoyment from my slight flirtations.

"Believe me I've learned my lesson during my duel with Mai. Besides I don't think I could look away from you even if I wanted to," Other Yugi responded. It was interesting to hear him respond to me in such a way but perhaps he had an interest in me as much was I was fascinated by him, I looked at my cards and decided to continue with the duel.

"My turn. I summon Gemini in attack mode!" I announced. The twined women appeared on the field with cunning smiles stretching across their faces as they stared at the man that we were opposing clearly ready to perform some of their magic upon his monster in order to weaken it.

 **Gemini – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level : 4, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

"Gemini use Half Magic and cut that Elf down to size!" I commanded. With glee clear upon their faces the two sorceresses summoned the magic into their hands and sent it flying at the Elf Swordsman weakening him and creating a Half Token.

 **Elf Swordsman – ATK/1400 – ATK/700**

"Now my Gemini attack Elf Swordsman and shred him to pieces," I commanded. The two women proceeded to cast another spell which resulted in the elven warrior being destroyed once the ball of magical energy impacted him and severely depleting my opponent of his Life Points. "I play two cards face down and end my turn," I spoke.

 **Yugi – LP: 1900 – LP: 800**

"What the hell, in just two turns Kylie's got Yugi down to less than half his Life Points!" Jounouchi exclaimed. Other Yugi looked to be rather annoyed by the events that had just happened but he drew out a card and looked at it before turning his attention to the field clearly analysing how to go about making this move given that the last time he had acted without caution he had lost Life Points.

"My turn. I'm activating the Spell Magic Removal, in order to destroy one of your Spell cards," Other Yugi announced. It was a gamble he made by betting that my hidden face down was a Spell and unfortunately he was right about that, the energy from his card launched over and destroyed my own so I lifted it up for him to see.

"This Columba. A Continuous Spell that prevents Dark Attribute monsters from attacking my monsters, given that most of your powerful monsters are Dark Attributes, leaving this card on the field would have been a dangerous move. Smart play sweetheart but let's see if you can keep it up," I explained. Everyone watching the duel seemed to let out a sigh of relief probably due to the fact that Other Yugi's gambit had played off and that he had removed a particularly dangerous card.

"With that out of the way I summon out Black Magician!" Other Yugi announced. The mighty Spellcaster appeared on the field causing a smirk to split across my face since I had been waiting for this card to make its' appearance since now the duel was officially serious given that an ace had been brought out to fight within the match. "Next I activate the Book of Secret Arts to raise my Black Magician's attack and defence by three hundred points," Other Yugi continued.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

 **Black Magician – ATK/2500 – ATK/2800, DEF/2100 – DEF/2400**

"Now Black Magician attack Kylie's Gemini with Black Magic!" Other Yugi commanded. The spellcaster pointed the green sceptre at my monster who looked to be rather fearful as the more powerful magic pierced into them thus destroying my Gemini and removing half of my Life Points with a single strike but I did notice that there seemed to be a sad look within Black Magician's eyes as he attacked my monster.

 **Kylie – LP: 2000 – LP: 1000**

"I lay one card face down and end my turn," Other Yugi spoke. With those words I proceeded to reach out to my deck and drew a card free so that I could look over it and analyse exactly how to go about using my cards in order to overcome the powerful monster that was standing across from me completely ready to defend his master.

"My turn! First I activate Scorpius' Special Effect! By discarding a monster from my hand you're Black Magician will lose attack points equal to its' level times by one hundred. I choose to discard my Level Three Taurus! Go Poison Sting" I announced. The tip of Scorpius' stinger glowed a sickly purple light before flying over and striking hard into Black Magician thus forcing it to be weakened.

 **Black Magician – ATK/2800 – ATK/2500**

The stinger pulled back as Black Magician fell to his knees feeling the effects of the poison eating away at the power that he had been given within thanks to the Book of Secret Arts whilst Other Yugi tried to keep a calm expression on his face but I could tell from the tightness in his jaw line that he hated seeing his monster in such grave pain.

" _He truly does care for them, doesn't he?_ " A familiar voice echoed. Those words caused a smile to tug at my lips since it did seem that both Yugi and the ancient spirit that shared his body cared deeply for the monsters that had chosen to serve them in combat and that was what made them such worthy opponents to face off against, perhaps even more worthy than Seto because of that single love.

"Then I summon forth Andromeda," I continued. The monster that was most loyal to me arose onto the field her calm eyes locked onto the Black Magician I swear that those orbs widened in shock and her mouth opened as if to speak to him before the spellcaster gave the near imperceptible shake of his head made her jaw snap shut.

 **Andromeda – Attribute: Light, Type: Spellcaster, Level 7, ATK/2600, DEF/2300**

"Now Andromeda attack the Black Magician with Constellation Flash!" I commanded. The starlight appeared within her hands as she stared at the magician that opposed her, however she didn't attack right away almost as if something was holding her back from doing so but she eventually threw the attack towards Black Magician.

"I activate Magical Silk Hats. Conceal the Black Magician!" Other Yugi countered. A frown tugged at my lips upon seeing the top hats appear on the field thus protecting the spellcaster and Andromeda stopped her attack before it could impact the hiding hats. "Well Kylie, what will you do now?" Other Yugi taunted.

My response to that was to look down at my hand as I thought over which cards I could use in order to get rid of the Magical Silk Hats but I lacked Cyclone, Heavy Storm and Magic Removal meaning that I couldn't remove the Magical Hats through that way so I closed my hand and lay it on the podium causing my opponent to look confused.

"I'm afraid that my hand contains no cards to assist me so I'm going to have to go with my instincts," I announced. After speaking those words I closed my eyes and took deep breaths in order to empty my mind of all distractions and calming my heart as I attempted to figure out where exactly the Black Magician could have been hidden away under those Magical Hats attempting to survive.

As I thought my hands traced invisible patterns on the podium, I could easily skip the rest of my turn but that would mean giving Other Yugi a chance to bounce back although there was still the risk of me missing allowing Other Yugi to re-strategize anyway, taking in a deep breath I settled on a decision and opened my eyes focusing on the ruby-eyed man that was opposing me.

"My decision is made. Andromeda attack the Magical Silk Hat second from the right!" I announced. My spellcaster summoned her starlight back to her hand before throwing the magical power straight at the chosen target allowing the two to collide as the Hat was ripped apart and hopefully taking the Black Magician with it.

"You've missed Kylie," Other Yugi informed. A very attractive smirk curved on his face as he spoke those words causing my cheeks to turn pink slightly as I looked at the area that had been attacked seeing that the Black Magician wasn't there as Other Yugi had declared, so I simply slid a card into the Spell and Trap zone face down in order to end my turn.

Other Yugi drew a card from his deck and proceeded to look at it alongside the rest of the cards that he had available to him before sliding one card onto the field thus hiding another card underneath the Hats and it was probably that it was a Trap of some kind meaning I would have to be careful when I made my next move.

I withdrew a card but it wasn't anything that I could use to dispel the Magical Hats but my eyes did widen upon seeing the card I had drawn however I couldn't utilise it just yet so I slid it into my hand and looked out across the field weighing up what I could do in this situation; if I attack then I could potentially hit the Black Magician or I could hit the Trap waiting for me and that could cause Andromeda to be destroyed but if I did attack with Scorpius and I hit Black Magician then I'd come **very** close to losing the duel.

"End turn!" I announced. Everyone was confused by the fact that I had simply skipped my turn but passing was the only safe option for me at the moment and this also meant that Other Yugi couldn't make another move unless he found a way to destroy or weaken my Andromeda, judging from the expression on his face he hadn't drawn a card to help this accomplishment so passed his turn as well.

I reached out my hand and prepared to draw a card however the moment my fingers touched the top card a rush of cold shot through me causing my body to shiver violently but I knew exactly what the source of the cold was causing me to let out a sigh before raising my head to look at Katherine.

"Kathie! Things are about to get cold!" I called out. Katherine eyes widened before she nodded her head in understanding and proceeded to produce sweaters, gloves and scarves which the others were forced to wear much to their confusion whilst Other Yugi stared at me wondering what I was on about. "You should recall my warning in the hallway, he's here," I explained.

Other Yugi's eyes widened as I lifted the card from my deck and added it to my hand before removing the card that I had drawn last turn knowing that now was the time to play the card so I slid it onto the field thus activating its' effect causing the atmosphere to become extremely cold as black ice appeared in my Spell and Trap zone.

"I activate the Ritual Spell, The Black Tortoise. By sacrificing my Andromeda and Scorpius I am allowed to summon forth one of the Guardians. The one that protects the north," I explained. Andromeda and Scorpius were consumed by whirling winds that froze one's lungs as they tried to breath before being pulled to the black ice and disappearing inside of it.

The black ice began to pulse with energy as the cold became even more pronounced causing everyone's breath to become visible as the other spectators were thankful for the warmer clothing that had been provided for them, Pegasus had even produced his own clothing and was even drinking from a mug that I assumed contained hot chocolate from the smell.

"Come forth, Guardian of the North, Genbu!" I cried. The black ice proceeded to float forward before turning ninety degrees so that the spikes that were once behind were now at the top and then four legs broke free from the ice a lighter shade of black than the ice they had emerged from then the neck and head of the tortoise shot forward from the ice and with a loud cry the rest of the ice shattered revealing the glistening obsidian shell which had an ice blue snake wrapped around it.

 **Guardian of the North, Genbu – Attribute: Water, Type: Aqua/Ritual, Level: 8, ATK/2900, DEF/3100**

"Now I activate Genbu's Special Effect! Once per turn I can freeze all of your Spells and Traps! Go Freezing Wave!" I declared. My Northern Guardian let out a shrill cry causing snow and freezing winds to whip across the stadium hitting against the Magical Hats and whatever was hidden within them, the Hats were turned to ice and underneath one was another dome of ice whilst within a second was the Black Magician. "Genbu attack Black Magician!" I commanded.

My Guardian opened its' mouth and unleashed a stream of chilled water right towards the Black Magician blasting through the frozen hat shattering it into pieces and then blasting right into Black Magician forcing him to be pushed backwards from the intensity of the blast until the sorcerer was overwhelmed by the strength of the surging water and eventually destroyed.

 **Yugi – LP: 800 – LP: 400**

Other Yugi stared at me his skin tinged red from the cold as small pieces of ice hung from his hair and clothing, his hand shaking slightly was the only sign of how badly the cold was affecting him as the rest of his body was tense from seeing Black Magician being destroyed.

"This beast… it's unlike any I've ever seen. Kylie… how did you come to possess this monster?" Other Yugi spoke. I looked at him before turning my attention to Genbu as I gently pressed my hand against his card; the cold didn't affect me simply because it couldn't, despite the initial shock which was Genbu drawing attention to himself I couldn't feel it whether it was my own magic or Genbu protecting me, I couldn't say.

"There are a total of four Guardians each corresponding to a different direction and wielding a different element. Thieves attempted to steal them but Genbu found his way to me despite that, **he** came to me and **made** me his master," I answered. Other Yugi's eyes widened in surprise, it would appear that despite his great love of his deck, he didn't know the true secret these cards carried, not yet anyway.

It was Other Yugi's turn now and as a result the ice melted away from the remaining Magical Hats and whatever the Trap was that lay underneath one of them however I could see that he was uncertain about what moves to make since he was faced with my Guardian, it would be so much simpler for him to admit defeat but I didn't want him to give in just yet, Other Yugi reached for his deck and withdrew a card causing his eyes to widen in surprise.

"My turn! I activate my face down. Curse of Hexagram! Attach to Guardian of the North, Genbu!" Other Yugi declared. The magical circle appeared and flew over ensnaring my Guardian thus preventing him from attacking and dropping his attack strength by seven hundred points as a result.

 **Guardian of the North, Genbu – ATK/2900 – ATK/2200**

"Now I activate Sealing Swords of Light preventing you from attacking for three turns!" Other Yugi announced. The green swords of light slammed down around me ensuring that no monster I summoned out would be capable of attacking before the ancient spirit was ready to enact his plan. "I end my turn," Other Yugi informed.

"I'll draw and summon out Cancer," I calmly responded. I reached out to my deck and added the card to my hand, it was a Trap that I couldn't use so there was no point in me playing it at the moment and nothing else in my hand would help me at this moment but bolstering my defences wasn't bad, Cancer took the form of a magnificent large orange crab.

 **Cancer – Attribute: Water, Type: Fish, Level: 4, ATK/1100, DEF/1200**

"Why aren't you freezing the Swords or Hexagram?" Other Yugi asked. The confusion was clear in his tone as I watched him, his eyebrows were furrowed as he looked at the scenario that he had created, I was kind of cute to see the normally insightful and intelligent man appear so lost at the moment that I had to restrain a giggle.

"Freezing them would only keep me imprisoned longer. Freezing means I suspend them at this point so technically when your turn came around it would still be two turns before they faded and freezing the Hexagram gets me nothing so I'm passing," I explained. Other Yugi nodded his head and so he reached his hand out and taking a card before turning back to face me with a determined glint in his eyes.

"I'm activating the Chaos Ritual sacrificing the Half Token of Elf Swordsman and a monster from my hand to do so," Other Yugi revealed. My eyes widened upon hearing those words and Ritual Spells were the one kind that Genbu couldn't stop thus allowing my opponent to bring out the legendary soldier once again.

 **Chaos Soldier – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior/Ritual, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

"Now attack Guardian of the North, Genbu with Chaos Blade!" Other Yugi commanded. The dark warrior dashed forward his sword being pulled back before driving it hard into Genbu's shell causing my Guardian to cry out in pain before erupting into a whirling storm of snow and ice which soon dissipated. "Then I activate two Spell cards, one is Defence Sealing thus forcing Cancer into attack mode and the other is Resurrection of the Dead allowing me to bring back Black Magician," Other Yugi continued.

 **Kylie – LP: 1000 – LP: 200**

"I'm sorry Kylie but this duel ends here, Black Magician attack Cancer with Black Magic!" Other Yugi declared. The magician raised his staff and destroyed my last monster thus taking the rest of my Life Points with it and ending the duel in Other Yugi's victory yet I felt no displeasure or annoyance as a smile curved onto my face.

 **Kylie – LP: 200 – LP: 0**

Clapping sounded from my left causing the smile to drop from my face as I turned to face the person who was responsible for the noise, Pegasus was on his feet clapping at the end of the match as a mocking smile rested on his face looking right at me as he clapped.

"Bravo, truly a magnificent duel. Because of this something has been made abundantly clear to me. Kylie Hope you are without a doubt, the best female duelist in the world as such I feel I should bestow you with the title Queen of Duelists," Pegasus announced. I wasn't entirely sure how to take such an appointment given the current situation so I stiffly nodded my head in response, picked up my deck and left the duel arena.

In the hall outside of I proceeded to stretch and rotate my fingers and wrists in order to loosen the up from the constant stress they had been put through in my two back to back duels when footsteps occurred and so I turned my head seeing Other Yugi standing there with a smile on his face as he looked at me so I dropped my arms to my sides and propped on of my hands on my waist.

"That duel was one of the toughest and most gruelling I've ever experienced. Thank you for giving that duel to me Kylie," Other Yugi admitted. I allowed a smile to spread across my face since I had felt the same way, Other Yugi was truly a worthy opponent to have face off against, I walked toward him and reached out to trail a finger down his cheek.

"Same to you. I hope to duel you again one day but you know… if you become the King of Duelists that makes you my king," I stated. My smile turned into a smirk at the surprised expression that graced Other Yugi's face before I pulled my hand back and walked around the mystery man. "Good luck in your duel," I called back.


	32. Chapter 32

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 32: - Yugi VS. Pegasus: Match of the Millennium (I)

It was time, all of the trials that we had passed through such as overcoming thieves, liars and even our own friends, the time had finally come for Yugi and his spirit companion to face off against Pegasus with the souls of his grandfather and the Kaiba brothers on the line.

At the moment Yugi was just beyond the door that connected to the lower balcony probably thinking over everything as for the rest of us we had sneaked our way down onto the lower balcony so that we could speak with Yugi before the duel, when the door opened and Yugi saw us it was clear to see the shocked yet happy expression that crossed his face.

"Yugi, it's finally about to start," Honda stated. Yugi claimed that all of us were the best whilst Anzu reminded him of what the prize would be for winning in this battle although she did leave out Seto, I stepped forward slightly causing Yugi to focus his attention on me as I gave the boy a shy smile.

"Yugi we're right here to support you so remember that during your duel," I admitted. Yugi smiled however I moved a little closer to him so that the others wouldn't hear what I was about to say. "Both of you," I added in a whisper. As I did I reached out with my right hand and touched the Millennium Puzzle with my gold clad fingers; however the minute I did something shot right through me like a bolt of lightning.

With a slight yelp of pain I jumped back and shook my hand as I pushed up the cardigan sleeve revealing that the golden item I wore was a gauntlet that ended part way passed my wrist, I fumbled with the clasps holding it shut but eventually managed to open them and I pulled it off revealing my hand yet it was completely unscathed despite the shock I'd felt.

"Katherine?" Kylie asked. She knelt down and took my hand in her own turning it at different angles but found nothing causing her to look confused which I echoed without a doubt. "Well that was weird," Kylie admitted. If one of us were to say something was weird that that really meant something since weird described our life every day.

"Don't worry Yugi. Focus on the duel, we know you can win," I reassured. Yugi nodded however he seemed to be worried about me even as I slid my gauntlet back onto my right hand then Crocketts called out to us announcing that it was time for the Championship match to begin and so with a light from his Millennium Puzzle Other Yugi emerged and took off towards the duel arena.

Once Other Yugi took his stand on the duel arena, Pegasus proceeded to emerge much like in his duel against Seto, I could only pray that this time the outcome was much different, Pegasus picked up a deck from one of his goons and proceeded to approach the podium.

"Yugi-boy, you are indeed a splendid duelist, I commend you on surviving the fights in this kingdom and earning the right to challenge me to this fight," Pegasus commented. How many things had this man manipulated from behind the scenes, what strings had he pulled to accomplish this goal of having Other Yugi as his opponent; I in no way doubted Other Yugi's skill but that didn't mean I didn't suspect Pegasus of manipulating some events.

"Pegasus! Before we duel, you will swear to me right now that if I win you'll return my grandpa's soul to me!" Other Yugi angrily demanded. Pegasus claimed that it was a deal however that didn't calm the seething rage that boiled within Other Yugi's ruby eyes. "That's not all, the souls of the Kaiba brothers sealed in the cards as well," Other Yugi added.

Pegasus claimed it was such a strange request since technically Seto could be classified as being Other Yugi's enemy but at the moment Pegasus was the only enemy and the spirit had a promise to keep to Mokuba, sadly Pegasus caught onto this memory thanks to the all-seeing powers of his Millennium Eye and agreed to this requested but the fact that Pegasus had read his mind ended up shocking Other Yugi but at least Pegasus agreed to the additional term.

Honda stated the obvious that the crazed, soul stealing, card maker was up to something with Jounouchi claiming that this matchup had to have been the plan all along… I was inclined to agree but the blonde boy still held a firm that the spirit would be victorious when Bakura commented that everything had been sacked in Pegasus favour.

"Do you really think that with a Millennium Item that can read minds at his disposal that Pegasus would play fair… not me. We need to do something… anything to level the playing field, even a little," Kylie spoke up. My sister was right but that stupid brunette girl still believed Yugi could win without any help.

"We all want Yugi to win but lets' face the facts. We're going into this duel, blind and uninformed whilst our opponent knows all the cards he holds and that we hold… quite literally," I commented. With the first cards about to be drawn it was best for us to move back up so that we could get a better view although I hung back with Honda. "Whatever you're going to do, do it quick," I insisted.

Honda seemed surprised but I knew that he had something in mind during our entire talk since in this group of friends that had assimilated us, only he and Bakura had any brains that worked inside their heads apart from Yugi and his mysterious spirit friend; with those words I took off back to the balcony so that I could watch this duel and hope it turns out alright.

After our arrival Other Yugi showed Glory of the King's Left to Crocketts who revealed that if Other Yugi did manage to defeat Pegasus then the boy would receive sixty percent of Industrial Illusions which meant if the boy so wished it then he could become the new president of the company but either way the boy was a rich man if he won this duel.

Pegasus claimed it was a great prize whilst Other Yugi shot back that the madman believed no one could beat him, Pegasus then went on to state that if Other Yugi lost the duel then it would be his soul that was taken next and it would be locked away inside the very card that he was holding.

Despite the serious risk there was to his own life, Other Yugi did not back down, he was willing to risk everything just to make sure that he got back the souls of Yugi's grandfather, Seto and Mokuba, it was a massive risk but the courage this spirit displayed was giving me hope that the two could pull this off as well as the unshakable belief that Jounouchi had in his friend

"We'll stop him. If he even tries to take Yugi's soul, we'll stop him," Kylie firmly declared. I saw the faintest of glows emanating from her hand before it disappeared, I truly wondered if we would actually be able to do such a thing as stopping a soul extraction but we wouldn't know unless we tried… I really hoped the two boys won this duel before it came down to such desperate lengths.

Before the duel would truly begin, two of Pegasus goons were lowered into the arena and they each took a duelists deck and passed them to the opponent, whilst Other Yugi shuffled Pegasus' deck repeatedly – maybe hoping this might help him stop the madman – Pegasus simply tapped a finger against Other Yugi's deck thus allowing it to be returned to him, he was extraordinarily confident in his Millennium Eye.

Once Other Yugi finished shuffling Pegasus' deck, the two decks were returned to their true owners and now it was finally time for this duel to get underway, my hands came together and clasped against each other almost like I was praying although in a way perhaps I was.

 **Pegasus – LP: 2000**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

The duelists picked up their first hand both staring each other down with Kylie commenting that the atmosphere gave off the feeling that we'd somehow been transported back into the Old West times of America, of course back then the most you lost was your life if you lost the duel, the stakes seemed much higher in the duel that we were watching.

Finally one of them make the first move with Other Yugi selecting a card from his hand and slid it into the Spell and Trap zone before placing a monster face down in defence mode; as opening moves go it was certainly a smart once since that would normally keep one's opponent cautious and uncertain.

However with that accursed Millennium Eye stuck in his head, Pegasus no doubt knew exactly what those cards, the other cards that Other Yugi currently held and whatever strategy that the poor boy was attempting to think up with them… there had to some way for the boys to overcome this magical advantage.

"It is my turn," Pegasus announced. If I wasn't so concerned with this duel then round about I'd be pacing a hole in the floor trying desperately to figure something out that could help my new friend so I settled for tapping my gloved right fingers against my bare left fingers.

Pegasus had a very smug expression on his face as he withdrew a card form his deck and then played one card face down in the Spell and Trap zone, mirroring his opponent's first move, probably to keep him guessing, then proceeded to summon out his Mermaid Archer in defence mode.

 **Mermaid Archer – Attribute: Water, Type: Aqua, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1500**

Thanks to that accursed Millennium Eye, Pegasus could easily anticipate the moves that any opponent tried to make against him and plan his counter measures accordingly, whilst the mermaid creature wasn't a powerful adversary it probably stronger than whatever creature Other Yugi had played in defence.

However if Other Yugi held a card that could increase the attacking power of his monster then that would change things but Pegasus probably already knew that fact which meant that his face down card was most likely a counter measure to prevent anything from increasing the attack strength of Other Yugi's monster.

It felt like my brain was beginning to melt from the constant scenarios that churned within my mental scape, how was someone meant to fight against an ancient magical item that allowed the individual who possessed it to read mind and extract souls from their bodies, willing or not… it was enough to give anyone a headache.

Wait… ancient magical item; Other Yugi held one of his own but its' only power allowed an ancient spirit to share the same body as the person who wore it; how could such a fact be helpful in such a state when the two of them had to work together in order to defeat the mad man.

"I switch my set Ruiz to attack mode!" Other Yugi declared. The rodent-like creature appeared on the field and I heard a breath being sucked in through teeth causing me to look at Kylie to seem agitated, I wondered if her mind was ablaze with the same thoughts that were running wild within my own.

 **Ruiz – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1200, DEF/1500**

"I also activate my set card Horn of the Unicorn," Other Yugi continued. As he flipped over the Spell card, a shaft of light appeared on the rodent's forehead before fading into the horn pictured on the card's artwork and thanks to the spell, Ruiz's power was increased so that it was able to overcome Mermaid Archer's defences.

 **Ruiz – ATK/1200 – ATK/1900, DEF/1500 – DEF/2200**

Other Yugi swiftly declared an attack however Pegasus countered by calling out that this was a grave error since it had activated the Trap card that Pegasus had hidden, it was known as Mermaid Tears and from the Mermaid Archer's eyes tears poured forth hitting Ruiz and removing Horn of the Unicorn's power up effect along with blocking the attack.

 **Ruiz – ATK/1900 – ATK/1200, DEF/2200 – DEF/1500**

"Damnit!" Kylie exclaimed. Her hand impacted the balcony railing and something cracked, I wasn't sure if it was bone or the marble and I was too scared to ask at the moment due to the fire in Kylie's eyes. "How can they fight him if he's just going to abuse his power like this!" Kylie snarled. It was lucky that my sister's body wasn't being danced with some kind of elemental force at the moment but that might not last for long.

"I'm thinking Kylie!" I softly cried. My sister looked at me and nodded understanding that she had to be calm if she wanted to help instead of lashing out but I couldn't help agreeing with her sentiments, how were our new friends meant to fight against this obstacle.

"My turn, I switch the Mermaid Archer to attack mode!" Pegasus commanded. With a gleeful laugh the mermaid's shell opened up wider allowing her to 'sit' up more as she drew back on her bow allowing light to encase the arrow it held before loosing it on the weary and unguarded Ruiz.

The destruction of his monster stripped away some of Other Yugi's Life Points thus granting Pegasus an early lead in the duel, I could see that Other Yugi was worried about how he was meant to fight back against an opponent who knew his moves long before he had any clue about which cards to play during that round… it must have been infuriating.

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1800**

"It's almost as if he knew what Yugi's reverse card was going to be," Anzu stated the obvious. How was it that this girl could stay so blind to all the magic that she had been forced to endure or that we happened to talk about right in front of her presence, sometimes the depths of the brunette's naivety was unimaginable.

"So this is Pegasus' Mind Scan?" Jounouchi wondered. Despite being a knucklehead most of the times, at least Jounouchi wasn't as naively blind as his friend which had allowed him to catch onto the whole magic thing easier. "And where the heck has Honda run off to?" Jounouchi asked. I couldn't believe that the blonde had only just noticed his other friend was missing.

"Hopefully, if he's successful, levelling the playing field," I answered. Everyone proceeded to look at me in surprise but I had been the only one with Honda before he took off on his little mission so it was naturally that I would know why Honda had taken off so suddenly, I truly hoped that the brunette boy was successful because we could really use a level playing field right now.

"He's gone to get Mokuba or Seto hasn't he?" Kylie asked. It was much more like a statement at the moment but I still nodded my head to confirm what my sister was thinking whilst Anzu was shocked and Jounouchi surprised by this fact although something cold washed over me almost like freezing ice had suddenly appeared on my body.

"Oh my, I do hope he's alright," Bakura stated. He sounded the same, he looked the same but I don't know why something felt off about him… it was almost like the time when his other side had sent all of us to the Shadow Realm then trapped our souls in cards but that dark aspect should be trapped in the graveyard now so why was that feeling coming back at this moment.

Something definitely wasn't right about this situation however until there was cause for concern about Bakura I had no reason to act and so instead turned my attention towards the duel once more allowing me to see that Other Yugi was in deep though either pondering how Pegasus had seen his cards or having figured out that little detail by now.

"You appear to have wasted a turn Yugi-boy. There are many variables in this game, from the cards to choose, to the right timing… the player's road to defeat is lined with a great number of little mistakes, one after another. Let me tell you one thing, I **never** make mistakes," Pegasus unveiled.

This was absolutely insane and I could see that Other Yugi was beginning to show his fear to us at this moment, I curled my hands into fists as I desperately tried to think of some way, any bit of information I had, to stop the Millennium Eye from peering into Other Yugi's mind thus stripping Peagsus of his edge in this duel.

Jounouchi claimed that all humans make mistakes and whilst all of us knew Other Yugi could thoroughly defeat anyone in a fair duel but in this unfair matchup then it was near hopeless with the Millennium Eye truly showing how dangerous the object could be in the hands of Pegasus, I shudder to think about the dangers it could inflict on the world if a truly evil person wielded it.

Bakura commented that since Pegasus had created Duel Monsters in a sense he was almost like a god so he knew this world of duels inside and out with Jounouchi asking if the white haired boy meant that there wasn't any chance of Other Yugi being victorious in this duel but Bakura didn't mean that however he also didn't know if anyone could, after all how can a 'mere mortal' defeat a god.

'Wait… mere mortal. But Yugi isn't, he's not normal because he's got two souls. Is that the key to overcoming this.' I wondered. Despite the threat posed to him Other Yugi didn't back down and slid another monster onto the field in face down defence mode, it was a smart idea until he came up with a way to stop Pegasus' mind reading ability.

As Other Yugi handed over the reigns of this duel to Pegasus, Crocketts pulled out a phone and answered it; I wondered if Honda might have succeeded in rescuing one of the Kaiba brothers' bodies since Crocketts seemed agitated and then I felt a surge of dark energy with Kylie's tensing posture also indicating she had felt it as well.

Pegasus withdrew a card from his deck but didn't make a move for a few seconds before proceeding to make his move which started with Pegasus summoning out Dragon Egger in defence then had his Mermaid Archer move back to defence as well, something wasn't right about this scenario although I couldn't tell what my instincts had latched onto.

 **Dragon Egger – Attribute: Fire, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2200, DEF/2600**

However Pegasus did nothing else, probably wanting to torture Other Yugi a bit, the spirit took over the duel and drew a card with Pegasus' expression making it quite clear that he knew exactly what our friend had just drawn from his deck and every other card that he was currently holding.

"This is beyond messed up. Something needs to be done and fast before Yugi loses his cool completely," Kylie stated. Whatever that something was I knew it would be a miracle but whether or not it arrive in time was up to a power beyond my knowledge or control.


	33. Chapter 33

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to Atarya QueenofEgypt and alexc1209 for your reviews.**

 **Alexc1209, in response to your review, Kylie isn't out for blood but she certainly won't pass up the chance to punch Pegasus if she gets the chance right now, things will change in the coming chapters once Pegasus' motives are revealed.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 33: - Yugi VS. Pegasus: Match of the Millennium (II)

There were several words that I could use to describe the situation that Other Yugi was stuck in, most of them rather colourful and should not be repeated whilst my innocent little sister was within such close hearing distance of such words despite the churning feeling in the pit of my stomach that I should at least say something.

I raked a hand through my red hair as I desperately tried to think of a way to block the powers of Pegasus' Millennium Eye but I didn't think anything I could do that was capable of stopping the powers of an ancient artefact; as my thoughts churred like a storm the others focused hard on the match with Jounouchi and Anzu cheering on our friend.

Another thing that was incredibly unsettling was the continual rising and falling of dark energy that was similar to the energy I had felt coming from the Millennium Ring before that bat shit crazy spirit yanked my soul from my body, this caused my eyes to occasionally dart over towards Bakura to see if he was acting any differently.

"Oi Bakura, where are you going?" Jounouchi suddenly asked. All of us looked over to see the white haired boy was walking away from the duel causing me to furrow my eyebrows as I stared at him wondered what Bakura could possibly be doing by abandoning his friend in this desperate moment.

"Oh, I was going to search for Honda-kun, make sure he's ok," Bakura explained. More words were spoken by the other two however I narrowed my eyes at those spoken by Bakura before glancing down at Katherine seeing that she looked unsettled about this whole thing as well.

Katherine glanced up at me and nodded signalling that she also suspected something was wrong with Bakura however neither of us could do anything at the moment without putting ourselves in danger against an unknown opponent or, more importantly, abandoning Yugi and his companion in an hour of dire need when our support was needed more than ever.

Bakura took off once the talking was over so we turned our attention back to the duel as Pegasus stared at Other Yugi waiting for the spirit to make his move but we knew that Pegasus probably already knew exactly what Other Yugi was going to attempt on this turn so he would also know how to counter attack it.

"I set a card face down on the field, also Demon's Summon in defence mode," Other Yugi announced. The fiendish creature appeared before the boy crouched down ready to defend him, this move made sense since Other Yugi needed to conserve every Life Point until a plan to overcome the Millennium Eye appeared.

 **Demon's Summon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 6, ATK/2500, DEF/1200**

Pegasus withdrew a card from his deck and then switched Dragon Egger into attack mode which caused the egg shell covering its' top half to break apart as the dragon hidden inside appeared for all of us to see with a fierce roar, Pegasus immediately ordered the draconic creature to attack the defending fiend.

"Trap activate! Curse of Hexagram!" Other Yugi declared. The trap activated preventing the twin streams of fire from hitting Demon's Summon and then pushing back until it neared Dragon Egger then proceeded to ensnare the dragon causing it to roar as its' power was drained away by the glowing seal.

 **Dragon Egger – ATK/2200 – ATK/1500**

Jounouchi and Anzu foolishly cheered this move but by Pegasus' sarcastic proclamation of 'oh no' it was easy to see that the crazy card maker had seen right through any subterfuge that Other Yugi had attempted causing a scowl to appear on my face as my hands came to grip my arms near tight enough to cut off the circulation.

"My turn! I switch Demon's Summon to attack mode! Attack Dragon Egger!" Other Yugi declared. I looked at Pegasus wondered what the man was possibly feeling since if things continued on their intended course then Pegasus was about to lose a substantial portion of his Life Points.

"Trap card activate! Trap Displacement," Pegasus calmly stated. As he spoke the man flipped over a face down to reveal a trap card that caused me to bite my tongue in order to prevent a string of curse words from flowing out upon seeing it whilst Other Yugi was completely confused as it what it meant. "Yes, with this card I can take a Trap card used against one of my monsters and transfer it to my opponent's," Pegasus explained.

As he did the glowing light of the Curse of Hexagram disappeared from around Dragon Egger and appeared around Demon's Summon thus causing its' discharge of electricity to be stopped dead in its' tracks and giving Pegasus the control he had never lost to begin with.

 **Dragon Egger – ATK/1500 – ATK/2200**

 **Demon's Summon – ATK/2500 – ATK/1800**

Sadly since the stop attack part of the Hexagram had already been used up during the previous turn then the attack phase of the current turn couldn't be stopped thus allowing for Dragon Egger to unleash its' attack at the Demon's Summon once more and this time the attack connected thus destroying the fiendish being and depleting more of Other Yugi's Life Points.

 **Yugi – LP: 1800 – LP: 1400**

Other Yugi was sinking deep into a pit of despair with every move that Pegasus made to perfectly counter his own whilst Jounouchi was incredibly angered by Pegasus' cheating methods and even demanded to what the use was in going on if we were up against such a high wall.

"Because there's still a chance," I cut across. Everyone turned to look at me as I tightly gripped the railing I had recently punched in order to keep myself calm as I spoke. "Sometimes you fight fire with fire. It's the same principal, Yugi's got to find a way to fight Pegasus' Millennium Eye with his Millennium Puzzle, it's the only hope we've got," I insisted.

"You're right Kylie, we can't give up now especially if Yugi's still fighting his hardest down there and we've got to believe he can find a way out of this," Jounouchi agreed. Belief, that was really all we were riding with at the moment; the belief that Yugi and his spirit friend could overcome Pegasus, the belief that Honda would be able to find Mokuba and/or Seto and get either of them to safety… it wasn't much but it was all we had.

Suddenly a surge of magical energy appeared and I clutched the back of my head feeling something tingling deep within my mind, a quick glance at Katherine told me that she was feeling the same thing yet Other Yugi and Pegasus appeared to have not felt it or they were too focused on their duel to acknowledge its' occurrence.

"My turn," Pegasus informed. He picked up a card from his deck as he looked at it, no doubt having prepared another move to perfectly combat anything that Other Yugi attempted to do. "No! There is no way to stop it Yugi-boy, a game is a contest between two minds, if you understand the mind of your opponent, you are guaranteed to win! You don't have the power to step one foot into the territory of my mind and that includes the world of the game I created as well. Allow me to show you this right now! My card is… Toon World!" Pegasus ranted.

He then removed a card from his hand and flipped it around for all of us to see causing me to draw in a sharp breath at the artwork that appeared on the card and the words that were spoken, the very thing that had undone Seto apart from that damned Millennium Eye, it appeared we were going to get treated to another insane afternoon courtesy of Toon World.

Pegasus activated the card causing the pop-up book to appear on the field, naturally the others were equally as worried about that card's appearance especially when pink smoke spilled out and ended up drawing in both of Pegasus' monsters then proceeded to snap shut preventing any attacks from being launched at the monsters hidden within the book.

The book then popped open and the pink smoke spilled out of it once again thus allowing the two monsters to be unveiled in their transformed cartoon glory and no doubt as equally indestructible as the ones we had seen in the duel with Seto.

 **Toon Mermaid – Attribute: Water, Type: Aqua/Toon, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1500**

 **Toon Dragon Egger – Attribute: Fire, Type: Dragon/Toon, Level : 7, ATK/2200, DEF/2600**

Pegasus proceeded to taunt Other Yugi for a bit as he glared at the toon creatures that had been brought into this fight and none of us could blame him after what we saw those accursed things accomplish against Seto, then Pegasus commanded Toon Dragon Egger to attack the face down card thus eliminating Other Yugi's only line of defence in Giant Soldier of Stone.

After it was destroyed that damned cartoon dragon got in Other Yugi's face and laughed at him before it proceeded to retreated back inside of Toon World thus preventing the maniacal toon from being attacked by Other Yugi although it wouldn't have mattered either way with their capability to dodge any attack.

"After launching their attacks, my Toon monsters hide themselves deep within Toon World! A world where your monsters can **never** reach," Pegasus fawned. I was just about ready to go down there an throttle the insane card maker for everything that he had put us through and was going to put us through no doubt.

Instead of pulling his Toon Mermaid back inside of Toon World for its' protection, Pegasus elected to instead switch the aquatic individual into attack mode causing a childish laugh to be elicited from the toon creature, this left Other Yugi in quite a tight spot as he needed to find some way to stop those toons whilst ensuring he didn't lose this duel in the process.

Other Yugi stared at his hands as he tried to figure out a strategy then proceeded to summon out his Elf Swordsman in attack mode no doubt with the intent to find some way to over come those toons by attempting an offensive manoeuvre.

 **Elf Swordsman – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

With their attack power being equal, normally it would ensure both of their destruction however when Other Yugi did have the attack launched at Toon Mermaid the clam actually produced arms and reached up stopping Elf Swordsman's attack with ease then legs popped out and slammed into the elven warrior sending him flying backwards thus allowing the mermaid to unleash an arrow right into Elf Swordsman destroying him.

Due to their equal attack points it prevented Other Yugi from losing any Life Points but it was clear that something was seriously off with those Toon monsters since it had prevented the match-up from being the draw that it should have been causing my lips to twist into a frown.

"That is correct. Toons can only be beaten by Toons! Toons are the perfect state of life," Pegasus stated. He had clearly read someone's mind since not one asked the question but I focused on his words; did that mean that they were indestructible in battle on their own or was that a power granted by Toon World, the Toon Mermaid proceeded to laugh with even the clam joining in and then the aquatic girl dashed back inside of Toon World for her protection.

Other Yugi seemed to be sinking deep into despair at the immeasurable high walls that kept appearing out of nowhere and planting themselves firmly in front of the mystery spirit intent on stopping the boy from reclaiming the soul of his friend's grandfather and it was starting to look like there was nothing any of us spectators could do to help.

On Pegasus' turn he simply set two cards face down in his Spell and Trap zone which would only give Other Yugi more trouble to worry about down the line, it was the spirit's turn now and he proceeded to analyse the cards in his hand probably trying to figure out exactly what he should do with those face down cards now on the field and Toon World.

Other Yugi retaliated by throwing a monster face down in defence mode however it turns out this is exactly the move that Pegasus had been hoping for as he proceeded to flip over one of his face down cards revealing it was the Trap known as Gorgon's Eye.

An eye surrounded by writhing snakes appeared on the field and once the lids of the eye snapped opened, Other Yugi's monster was forcibly revealed displaying that it was actually the monster known as Imp and then the creature was rapidly turned into stone due to the Trap's effects which shocked Other Yugi.

 **Imp – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1000**

"This card is a Permanent Trap that turns all of the opponent's monsters into a useless statue," Pegasus revealed. The Gorgon's Eye then proceeded to disappear back into the arena floor awaiting activation once more. "Furthermore, when your stone monsters are destroyed half their defence points will be subtracted from your Life Points. In other words, you have no choice but to attack my Toons every single turn, what useless attacks they'll be, eh?" Pegasus mocked.

Only he laughed at his poor excuse for a joke so he then got on with his turn by flipping over his second face down card revealing that it was Copycat causing me to grit my teeth as I remembered what this card had done against Seto, when the card was activated and a black toon cat appeared then wrapped around Pegasus as he reminded us of the card's copying effects.

"A very loving cat as always and just what card do you want to change into?" Pegasus asked. In response to this the cat began to whisper something into Pegasus' ear with a maniacal grin on its' face. "Nice! That's a good idea! Yugi-boy it seems he would like to change into that Demon's Summon you played a few turns back," Pegasus revealed.

This confused us until Pegasus reminded us that Toon World had been added to the game and that all of us knew what that meant, a shiver ran up and down my spine at the thought of what was about to occur, the daft cat would be able to turn into Demon's Summon but before it did so the cat jumped right into Toon World implying that we would be witnessing the birth of a Toon version of the fiendish being.

Pegasus bragged about what he had accomplished as a dark purple aura surrounded Toon World's cover, the aura disappeared and then the book proceeded to wiggled for a bit before straightening up so that one of the covers faced towards Other Yugi then lightning began to emit from the book before it flipped around and then snapped open.

"A new page called 'Evil Castle' will now open in Toon World! Now come out here my Toon Demon!" Pegasus declared. As he did a Toon creature popped out and leaned forward wagging its' tongue towards Other Yugi with manic glee shining in its' yellow eyes.

 **Toon Demon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend/Toon, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/1200**

Just as how Seto was angered upon seeing the twisted version of his Blue-Eyes, Other Yugi was as equally angered upon seeing this warped version of Demon's Summon that was even more frightening than the normal version I was used to seeing mainly because of how weird the creature looked.

Pegasus went on to ask his opponent if his new fiendish Toon gave off a definitely lovely aura which causing the toon to summon up thick eyelashes and have its' lips be dabbed in pink lipstick then it fluttered one of its' eyes at Other Yugi causing a heart to jump out from that eye.

"That looks so weird," Katherine whispered. I had to agree with my sister on that comment since the toon just looked very strange attempting to appear feminine that my brain mentally stopped working for a few seconds in order to reboot itself back into a properly functioning order which caused me to shake my head slightly to help the process.

Other Yugi cursed Pegasus for his actions which caused the crazy card maker to retaliate by ordering the newest Toon to attack the petrified Imp causing blue lightning to be summoned down from no where and then launched towards the being causing it to be shattered into digital rock fragments and deplete more of Other Yugi's Life Points.

 **Yugi – LP: 1400 – LP: 900**

Toon Demon proceeded to do some flexing which caused a sweat drop to appear on my forehead before the fiendish toon did the wise thing and retreated back within Toon World as Pegasus spoke some more words but I was beginning to feel a headache forming causing me to raise my fingers to my temples and massage that area to help relieve it.

"That creep sure loves to hear himself talk," Anzu spat. For once I actually agreed with the annoying brunette whilst Jounouchi demanded to know if there was any way to actually beat these damned Toons, none of us knew the answer to that – apart from getting a Toon of our own but that wasn't possible – so neither me or Katherine said anything to placate the angry blonde simply because we couldn't.

"It's your turn," Pegasus practically sang. Other Yugi seemed to jump slightly but he soon recovered and reached out a hand to his deck, he withdrew a card allowing himself to look at it then Pegasus let out a small laugh that was barely held inside of him. "I see you've drawn the Black Magician," Pegasus stated. Other Yugi's shocked face was all I need to know that Pegasus was right once again.

Pegasus continued on claiming there was no way for Other Yugi to emerge victorious in this duel even stating that his fighting spirit was fading away which caused the desire to go down and punch Pegasus to burn even brighter so I tightened my hands in order to control this urge as the others gave their support to Other Yugi but my throat was too dry for any words to leave me.


	34. Chapter 34

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to Atarya QueenofEgypt and alexc1209 for your reviews.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 34: - Yugi VS. Pegasus: Match of the Millennium (III)

The situation was just getting worse and worse the more that time went on and with each countered move and defeated monster I could see that Other Yugi was slowly beginning to slip into a dark cavern of despair as it seemed that victory was being yanked out of his hands mercilessly by the man across from him.

"Your turn Yugi-boy but what's a poor duelist to do. If you throw your monster in defence mode I'll fossilise them and if you throw them in attack I'll destroy them," Pegasus taunted. There had to be some way to use the Millennium Puzzle to win just like Kylie had believed there could potentially be, all the facts ran through my mind as I tried to work out a plan to help Other Yugi.

"Black Magician in attack mode," Other Yugi announced. The trusty magician was projected onto the field but I wondered if the Black Magician would be able to do as he always seemed to, overcome any obstacle to deliver victory to his chosen master.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

"Also Magical Silk Hats," Other Yugi continued. As he did, the mysterious spirit proceeded to play the card in the Spell and Trap zone thus causing the four hats to become projected onto the field and shrouding the Black Magician from sight but I wondered if it would be able to keep the magician safe from harm this time.

Anzu truly believed that this was the truth by her cheering however Pegasus wasn't even shaken by this act as he easily saw through Other Yugi's desperate attempt at stalling until a way to destroy Toon World could be found claiming it wouldn't work because by Other Yugi knowing the location of his spellcaster then Pegasus would learn it and used his Millennium Eye to reveal that Black Magician was hiding under the hat farthest to Pegasus' left.

I could see that Other Yugi had been shaken by Pegasus' words and I knew that there was something I needed to do before the spirit gave up all hope of actually winning this duel so I pulled myself up to the railing as I took in a deep breath.

"Yugi listen to me!" I called. Other Yugi snapped his head up towards me but my shyness didn't kick in as my message was too important to be stopped. "All Millennium Items have magic, Pegasus can read minds but you have your own kind of magic, if you want to win then you've got to use it now!" I explained. Other Yugi's eyes widened as if my words were taking root within his mind then suddenly he froze up.

I wondered if Yugi and his spirit friend were having a discussion about what to do against the power of the Millennium Eye, a tense silence passed over all of us as we waited for something, anything to happen other than Pegasus destroying the Dark Magician and forcing more salt onto an deep and open wound.

"Toon Demon, attack the Magical Silk Hat on the far left!" Pegasus commanded. As spoken the cartoon fiend rose out of the book and with a horrid laugh, blue lightning was conjured and then launched at the designated hat, destroying it. "The Black Magician has been reduced to ashes," Pegasus gloated.

I began to feel depressed realising that my words hadn't been able to help either of our friends overcome the obstacle that prevented them from saving the trapped souls and it began to feel like I was at fault for not being of more help that I should have been, suddenly a hand fell on my shoulder causing me to look up at Kylie who pointed to the duel with a smirk on her face as Pegasus questioned why the Black Magician was still on the field display.

"I was able to hide the location of the Magical Hat that Dark Magician is hiding in using my subconscious," Yugi spoke. Yugi not the spirit that inhabited his body causing me to look at him seeing that it was indeed the young boy who was at the podium and from Pegasus' words that meant that he had actually missed the Black Magician.

"Looks like you couldn't read the other mind, my mind, after all," Yugi challenged. Pegasus apparently knew about there being two minds within Yugi as he identified the Real Yugi as being another mind which ended up confusing the other two spectators.

"You know this shows how blind you all are. The Millennium Puzzle allows an ancient spirit to share the body of the one that wears it, Yugi technically has two minds, the one that you all know and the one which only appears when he duels, when the spirit is needed or when Yugi is in danger," Kylie explained. The two looked at my sister but we couldn't say any more as we turned back to the duel but Jounouchi did call down to Yugi asking what the hell she meant.

"I didn't tell you guys but the me that duels isn't the usual me. I'm always resting in my heart, I change to my Other Self to fight and I just watch from within my heart but in this duel, I couldn't just stay hidden and watch as my Other Self suffers. Katherine's words are what gave me to courage to act. You may find it hard to believe but since I solved the puzzle, me and my Other Self have been taking turns at living," Yugi explained.

"I sure hope he knows what he's doing, after all how much do any of us know about these Millennium Items," Anzu commented. She had a fair point since all the Millennium Item we had encountered were filled with magical power and had some kind of connection to the dangerous Shadow Realm, but it was a risk that Yugi had to take.

"Have faith, Yugi is much stronger than any of you see," Kylie reassured. It was surprising that my sister of all people had reassured the brunette who had angered her only a day ago but then again maybe this duel forced Kylie to put aside her annoyance at Anzu to focus on the friend that they both cared for.

"Multiple personalities switching places! Isn't this what they call… split personalities, right? Is that true?" Jounouchi complained. It wasn't surprising to see that Jounouchi was freaking out about the revelation that had just been dumped on him about his best friend but now wasn't the time to be explaining the complexities of an item we didn't fully understand ourselves.

Yugi made his move by laying a single card face down on the field and ended his turn even daring Pegasus to read his mind in order to find out what the card was and so Pegasus began to use the power of his Millennium Eye in order to probe the young boy's mind.

"Why?! There's no image of the set card!" Pegasus exclaimed. It was soon revealed that the reason for this was because the person currently standing across from him was Other Yugi and I was surprised to see that the two of them had switched places once more.

"Sorry but I don't know what that set card is either. Reading my mind is pointless Pegasus, Pegasus it seems to take you a certain amount of time to read the opponent's mind with your Millennium Eye. I switched minds while you were busy trying to read me, the way to beat the Millennium Eye is the Mind Shuffle!" Other Yugi explained. A great big smile cracked across my face as I realised that my words had helped both Yugis to figure out a plan to stop the Millennium Eye.

The other two cheered upon learning this fact and Jounouchi seemed to be incredibly relieved now that he knew for sure that Yugi wasn't fighting this battle solely on his own thanks to the spirit that was allowed to reside within his body and the two of them were working together in order to overcome this obstacle.

One thing that did concern me at the moment was that neither Bakura or Honda had come back and I was still worried about the unusual energies that had bene rising and falling for a while now, it caused me to wonder if perhaps the evil spirit that had possessed Bakura had somehow managed to claw its' way back into the poor boy's body after all we didn't know anything about these mysterious spirits.

Suddenly – almost as if in response to my thoughts – another surge of dark energy washed over all of us but only I and Kylie sensed it but this did nothing to calm my frantic nerves and it seemed that even Kylie was unsure about how to take the sudden appearance of dark energy, neither of us could leave Yugi and the spirit to this battle but if Honda was in danger we couldn't leave him to face this alone.

" _My Lady, shall I?"_ A soft voice requested. My only reaction to this voice was the slightest of nods, barely perceivable to those that didn't look close enough and the soft scent of olives appeared before disappearing all together, I looked at Kylie who titled her head slightly but it was all I need to know that a similar thing had happened to her.

Other Yugi reminded Pegasus that it technically was his turn with the card maker finding it unbelievable that something could beat his Millennium Eye so he didn't bother with his Mind Scan and instead opted to draw from his deck claiming that so long as Toon World was still on the field then his monsters were untouchable.

Pegasus also added that technically the Black Magician could only remain hidden for a total of two more turns before Pegasus managed to find his hiding place but Other Yugi was hardly worried as he dared Pegasus to select the correct hat before going on to imply that the man was too much of a coward to trust his own intuition due to his reliance on the Millennium Eye.

However Pegasus didn't falter even admitting it had been several years since he relied upon his instincts and instead simply called upon the Toon Demon to attack the hat that now lay within the middle of the three remaining hats causing lightning to bubble and then strike the predetermined target utterly destroying the hat yet nothing lay within the hat which angered Pegasus.

"What a pity, you've missed again. Pegasus since you're the creator of Duel Monsters, I'm sure you're aware of this every game has a winner and a loser. So what do you suppose separates the two? It's good judgment needed to know the rules and assess the situation of the game and the instincts to decide when and how to act. Whoever has these two things is the winner. Judgement comes from experience and confidence, instinct requires true courage but you've relied on the Millennium Eye for far too long and you've lost the instincts of a duelist. When it comes to true courage, my partner is **far superior** to you," Other Yugi lectured.

It was sweet to hear such high praise from the spirit towards the young boy he cared for and then he proceeded to switch with Yugi who proceeded to draw a card from his deck and his face lit up brightly implying that the card was good and he then proceeded to lay it face down onto the podium then decided to switch back to Other Yugi thus protecting the card's identity from Pegasus' Millennium Eye, it was proving that the Mind Shuffle strategy was working.

"It's your turn," Other Yugi mocked. It did seem like Pegasus was becoming agitated due to losing such a valuable edge in such an important duel but given that it was a cheating edge then he deserved to have lost it and now it seemed like Yugi actually had a chance of successfully winning this duel and saving the stolen souls.

I was somewhat worried about how Yugi and the spirit would be able to overcome their lack of communication which had been the most important aspect of their relationship since Yugi finally let the spirit into him more; I could only hope that their trust in each other would be able to overcome this aspect of their strategy.

"It's my turn," Pegasus admitted. He then proceeded to draw a card from his deck and he seemed to be rather glad upon seeing it which caused me to frown as that no doubt meant that this card would cause trouble for the two opposing Pegasus later on.

Well it seemed like I was wrong about that aspect because Pegasus opted to play that card immediately, revealing that it was the Spell, Magical Neutralising Force which meant that it would be completely capable of getting rid of the Magical Hats that hid the Black Magician thus leaving the mighty magician vulnerable to attacks by Pegasus' demented toons.

A swirling storm began to appear between the two remaining Magical Hats and as the storm grew in strength the hats began to rock backwards and forwards almost as if they were attempting to resist the destructive effect that was threatening to destroy them at any minute.

Eventually the hats became as mist then were blown away completely revealing the Black Magician on one knee thus exposing him to any attacks which was worrying for Other Yugi whilst Pegasus seemed to be practically gloating about the success of his Spell card claiming this was the end and that skilled duelists didn't need instincts instead only needing their brains to avoid such risks.

Toon Demon was called out from within Toon World once again so that it could destroy the Black Magician with the Toon sticking his tongue out whilst pulling at the corners of his lips and shaking his tongue from side to side, clearly mocking Other Yugi.

Lightning was brought careening down towards the Black Magician dully intent on destroying the defenceless magician however Other Yugi opted to swap with Yugi clearly not having a move but placed his faith in Yugi to protect their beloved magician from destruction and I tangled my fingers together praying that he did have such a move.

"Now, set card open! Magic-Effect Arrow!" Yugi revealed. Pegasus was surprised and naturally he knew exactly what kind of effect the Magic-Effect Arrow would have as Yugi commented that whilst Yugi had drawn cards, Other Yugi had stalled him until Pegasus was frustrated ensuring that he would play a card to destroy the Magical Hats then switched back to Other Yugi who claimed this was what they had been aiming for.

"Now all magical effects sent **our** way are sent to **you** at the same time. Pegasus! We're using the Magic-Effect Arrow to return the effects of the Magical Neutralising Force to you!" Other Yugi declared. The arrow became engulfed in light and then shot forward with blazing intent towards the accursed book that sheltered those Toons and empowered them.

Despite the clear destruction that would be brought to Toon World, Pegasus was far too reassured since he claimed that the attack from Toon Demon couldn't be stopped and then the lightning impacted against the Black Magician.

However Yugi took over the duel and proceeded to rescue the Black Magician by activating the other face down card that he had played revealing that it was the Trap Mirror Force thus sending the lightning surge back to the defenceless monsters which had been returned to their none Toon forms.

 **Mermaid Archer – Attribute: Water, Type: Aqua, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1500**

 **Dragon Egger – Attribute: Fire, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2200, DEF/2600**

 **Demon's Summon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 6, ATK/2500, DEF/1200**

The lightning slammed into all three monsters utterly destroying them as Demon's Summon was reverted back to the Copycat once the lightning attack struck him, as in accordance with the effects of Mirror Force all of the monsters were destroyed which would deal a heavy and devastating blow to Pegasus' previously untouched Life Points.

 **Pegasus – LP: 2000 – LP: 600**

"YES!" Kylie cheered. Her fist struck the air in victory however on the other hand Pegasus was in completely and absolute shock upon seeing his beloved toons destroyed by one of their own attacks… in fact he even started declaring that this couldn't be reality clearly in denial about the course that fate had decided to take in this duel.

"He did, they did, this duel is turning around," I squealed. It appeared only me and Kylie were actually capable of speaking since Jounouchi and Anzu were completely silent almost as if they were trying to process the scene that they had just witnessed with their own eyes.

"Alright! All the Toons were destroyed!" Yugi reaffirmed. He then turned to look up to us as a bright smile graced his innocent face however it took me a moment to realise that he was actually looking directly at me. "Thank you Katherine, your words helped me to understand what I had to do," Yugi admitted.

I felt a blush begin to crawl its' way across my face at this admission which caused me to look down as I bunched up the fabric of my dress, in response to the distress that I was feeling Kylie ended up laughing as she patted me on the back which wasn't helpful in any way imaginable.

"Don worry about Kathie, Yugi. She's just embarrassed at the praise you gave to her," Kylie reassured. This would be one of those rare moments were I felt like shoving my sister head first into the Shadow Realm because of the fact that she was only adding to the embarrassment that I was currently feeling instead of alleviating it like she thought.

The other two spectators finally seemed to come to grips with what had occurred as Jounouchi cheered for Yugi whilst Anzu simply smiled as she appeared to be greatly relieved about the way that this duel had suddenly turned around with our friends now in the lead for the first time in this duel.

"Wonderful. Exactly what I would expect from one chosen by the Millennium Items. It seems I was playing around **far** too much, I must now face you in this duel with the power and respect you deserve. Yugi-boy, from now on, this will be a fight between two people chosen by the Millennium Items. Let's settle this in a Dark Game!" Pegasus ranted.

As he did a cold and foreboding aura began to appear in the arena and I swear my breath was visible at one point then a dark black substance appeared and it began to grow up around them thus causing terror to flood my system whilst Kylie finally let a curse slip through her lips as her face turned ashen white upon seeing the darkness that began to surround our friends and his opponent.

That damned mad man had decided to turn this duel into a Shadow Game.


	35. Chapter 35

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc1209 for your review and don't fret about the language.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 35: - Yugi VS. Pegasus: Match of the Millennium (IV)

"NO!" I cried. The sound was strangled almost like I was being choked but given what I was currently seeing that scenario would have been more preferable to the madness I was currently witnessing, without a single second wasted I shoved myself away from the balcony rail and dashed out into the corridor ignoring everything except the urgency to reach my friends.

"Kylie!" Katherine screamed. I didn't stop running and only inclined my head backwards to see my little sister chasing after me obviously knowing exactly what I intended to do and she wasn't going to leave me alone in this task thus she had immediately chased after me despite how strange it must have seemed to the other two.

The two of us arrived at the door that lead into Yugi's side of the duel arena and I didn't waste anytime braking as I slammed the door open allowing me and Katherine to get in although we were soon forced to brake so that we didn't run into the shadow dome that had covered the entire duel arena and with its' opaque nature neither of us could see anything beyond the churring shadows.

I snapped my head up to the balcony see that neither Jounouchi or Anzu were standing there but two people, one with white hair and the other with black hair, were slumped against the railing and I could only assume that they were Bakura and Mokuba which meant that Honda must have returned having been successful in his rescue of the youngest Kaiba brother.

"Well that's one weight off my heart," Katherine breathed. I nodded my head to agree with her as I snapped my attention back to the dome before us; since those three weren't at the railing I knew that they were no doubt coming down here so we had to act an fast if we want to help Yugi and the spirit.

"Katherine, quickly," I implored. My sister nodded as she stepped forward slightly and raised her right hand so that it pointed at the dome with the clawed tips arced slightly towards the palm of her hand as a golden aura began to engulf her body as an eye symbol appeared on her forehead glowing with light.

"Millennium Gauntlet, open the door to the Shadow Realm," Katherine chanted. This was a part of our secret, Katherine possesses a Millennium Item which ended up enhancing her latent magical abilities thanks to our parent's bloodlines and this item didn't have an ancient spirit residing within it which I was rather glad about knowing she hadn't been possessed since she put it on a few years ago.

The Gauntlet unleashed a beam of light and struck against the shadow dome before twisting into a swirling beam of light which resulted in a spherical portion of the shadows being forced open thus allowing the two of us to jump through portion before it snapped shut behind us meaning we could only leave once this duel was done.

I felt a cold chill slither down my spine at the ominous and deadly aura that this foul place always seemed to exude, the two of us barely spared a second glance at our bleak surroundings and instead opted to follow the walkway that lay underneath our feet as it connected to the duel arena thus would lead us right to Yugi and Pegasus.

We only took a few steps before arriving at the duel arena seeing that nothing had changed from when the dome had been summoned from the Shadow Realm and it seemed that Yugi had already caught onto exactly what the current situation meant for them.

"From this point on, this is a wizard's battle that no normal being can endure. Yugi-boy I wonder how your mind will hold up," Pegasus taunted. He was right, a Shadow Game made every move you make real and as a result it took great mental and spiritual fortitude to survive this kind of match and I was worried that Yugi's gentle soul wouldn't be able to handle the strain.

It seemed that the effects of the Shadow Realm were already beginning to take their toll on Yugi due to the slight heavy breathing that was coming from him so Other Yugi took the initiative and took over the duel clearly intent on protecting the boy that he had become bound to.

"Yugi, I'll draw the cards from now on," Other Yugi suggested. The spirit picked up a card from his deck and froze for a minute most likely having a conversation with Yugi about how to continue with their strategy now that Yugi would be forced to face off against such a dangerous scenario if they attempted the Mind Shuffle.

Other Yugi opted to pass his turn thus allowing Pegasus the chance to make a comeback against his opponents which caused me to begin worrying about the fate of my friends in this incredibly dangerous duel and I felt Katherine fumble for my hand to grasp in order to reassure her no doubt pounding heart, since mine was jumping like a jackrabbit at the moment.

"My turn. Dark-Eyes Illusionist in attack mode," Pegasus declared. As he did a purple aura surrounded him before shooting up allowing the creature to manifest on the field yet I didn't recognise the being that it had produced. "In a Dark Game, the Duel Rings Kaiba Corporation created are no longer active. The player's willpower literally brings the monster to life and if that willpower should run out, the player's life might run out as well," Pegasus revealed.

 **Dark-Eyes Illusionist – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 2, ATK/0 DEF/0**

A monster with an attack and defence power of zero… that was never a good thing because in my opinion it normally meant that there was an extremely dangerous Special Effect tied to it and I didn't know a damned thing about this monster because I had never heard of it until Pegasus summoned it in this duel.

"I call Curse of Dragon to the field," Other Yugi retorted. This action caused a hole to be formed within the shadow dome but it didn't open up to the outside as Curse of Dragon came out from within the hole onto the field ready to strike at Other Yugi's discretion.

 **Curse of Dragon: - Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1500**

Suddenly the power of the Millennium Puzzle activated allowing Yugi to take control of the duel but I was greatly concerned about how the young boy would manage to take the strain of sustaining two monsters with the untrained strength of his mind.

"Yugi stop! You're in danger!" I exclaimed. This caused Pegasus to look behind his opponent whilst Yugi whip around see the two of us were watching the duel as shock and surprise crossed over both of their faces and no doubt the spirit was also feeling surprise upon seeing the two of us standing there despite our previous location.

"Yugi please, you need to leave this duel to your other self, it's too dangerous for you," Katherine implored. However Yugi shook his head and then turned around to continue the duel but I could already see that the toll was beginning to take effect as more heavy breathing came from him and his eyes had looked worn out.

The poor boy planted his right hand against the podium to support himself and this caused Katherine to dash over to him and wrapped her hands around his hand allowing a golden light to spread from her Millennium Gauntlet around Yugi relieving a little of the burden his mind would be suffering under.

Back when we were younger and had been recently introduced to the terrors of the Shadow Realm both myself and Katherine had suffered under the same strain but now the both of us were stronger with our mental prowess greater and our magical energies more evolved so now Katherine was using that to help Yugi by alleviating some of the weight as she transferred it to herself.

"My chest… it's not hurting so much," Yugi shakily spoke. I could see that Yugi was beginning to crack under the strain causing Katherine to tighten her grip as her eyes scrunched closed whilst the glow intensified, I couldn't do something like Katherine could, to heal a spirit took great spiritual strength and Katherine was more powerful than me in that regard.

As for Pegasus' words I knew that he was right about the threat of the Shadow Realm but the dangers of forfeiting the match were much too great for the idea to even be entertained, I could only hope that Other Yugi would see the danger this presented to Yugi and that he would take over this duel before any harm came to Yugi's soul that Katherine couldn't heal.

Fortunately my hope was made concrete as Other Yugi swiftly switched with Yugi and since his mind was stronger, Katherine drew her hands away from his hand then stepped back to stand at my side as Other Yugi cast a curious glance at the two of us before turning his attention back to the duel at hand, no doubt we'd be in for some questioning when all of this was over.

"On my turn I'll attack with Curse of Dragon," Other Yugi declared. The draconic beast soared up into the crackling dark sky unleashing its' screeching battle cry before diving down towards Dark-Eyes Illusionist, it was an impulsive attack spurred by Other Yugi's desire to protect his young charge from any further harm.

However by declaring the attack it had clearly activated the Special Effect of Pegasus' monster which caused the head of Dark-Eyes Illusionist to spin around in a complete circle then a purple light shot out from the creature's eyes as Pegasus explained the Special Effect prevented any attack from being launched at the monster as a golden eye reminiscent of those on the Millennium Items appeared on Curse of Dragon.

The mad man claimed that the terror of his Illusion monsters hasn't been seen yet, Other Yugi demanded an answer from him but Pegasus proceeded to flip over the face down card he had set revealing that it was the Illusion Ritual card and he was intending to sacrifice Dark-Eyes Illusionist which caused me to worry as to how powerful the creature must be if Pegasus was going to sacrifice the Illusionist.

Purple flames became lit on the torches that surrounded a golden cauldron with that same eye symbol on it and then purple smoke erupted from the cauldron which proceeded to drag Dark-Eyes Illusionist into the cauldron as Pegasus announced that he was summoning something called Sacrifice with the cauldron actually transforming into the creature.

 **Sacrifice – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster/Ritual, Level: 1, ATK/0, DEF/0**

The creature's appearance was another thing that shocked me since it was completely different to what I was used to seeing and even Other Yugi was surprised by its' unusual appearance; things only got worse when Pegasus activated the creature's Special Effect which caused a black hole to be produced by a part of its' body.

As it turned out this black hole had the same properties as a realistic black hole since it drew Curse of Dragon towards the opposing creature with the dragon being unable to resist and then it was completely swallowed by the black hole which reduced the number of monsters on Other Yugi's side but at least Black Magician was still standing.

"Black Magician attack Sacrifice!" Other Yugi ordered. The mighty spellcaster responded by jumping into the sky and unleashing his Black Magic attack but Pegasus ordered Sacrifice to defend which caused the two top parts to lower providing a shield and then Curse of Dragon appeared in the shield causing the attack to slam into the captured dragon, destroying it and dealing more damage to Other Yugi's Life Points since it was Other Yugi's monster that was destroyed.

 **Yugi – LP: 900 – LP: 400**

This Special Effect was utterly devastating since Pegasus could keep stealing Other Yugi's monsters to protect his own and then if Other Yugi tried to attack then he would suffer the damage as a result; Pegasus made his move by drawing a card from his deck and then ordering Sacrifice to take the Black Magician as its' next hostage even though the magician attempted to resist the pull.

 **Sacrifice – ATK/0 – ATK/2500, DEF/0 – DEF/2100**

Pegasus mocked Other Yugi over the current situation and I was worried about what the spirit would be able to do against a creature that would repeatedly steal his monsters and use them as a shield against the one that they had chosen serve also if Other Yugi attack them it would result in him losing the rest of his Life Points.

It appeared that he was thinking deeply about the next move that he should make then the Puzzle activated once more allowing Yugi to take over so Katherine was at his side in an instant already trying to strengthen his soul with her own in order to keep the shadows from tearing our innocent friend away from his life.

Yugi reached out his hand to his deck and it was clear that he wouldn't last much longer which meant that he had to act quickly as there was a limit to how much healing Katherine could do before this accursed realm began to eat away at her own soul as well, Yugi drew a card and quickly threw it into the Spell and Trap zone then brought out the Gremlin in defence.

 **Gremlin – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400**

"Sacrifice attack!" Pegasus commanded. Katherine seemed to stop breathing at those words and I swear my own heart stopped as purple lightning came from the Black Magician and transferred to Sacrifice allowing it to unleash a beam of purple energy into Gremlin, destroying it.

"YUGI!" Me and Katherine screamed. I dashed over to the young boy whilst Katherine crumpled to her knees as the golden glow of her magic faded however Yugi was slumped against the podium and so I desperately felt for some sign that he was alive whilst Katherine had a grip on his jacket.

"It seems the other mind of Yugi-boy just wasn't up to the right level to play in a Dark Game. Now your other mind has perished," Pegasus commented. I felt my anger begin to rattle inside of my body at the cold and callous way Pegasus had acted towards such a sweet and kind soul just so that he could win this infernal duel and gain control of Kaiba Corporation for his own greed.

"You monster! You murdered him!" I screamed. Pegasus narrowed his eyes but I simply turned away from him and knelt down beside Yugi with Katherine having tears pouring down her face as her Gauntlet lay over Yugi's heart aglow with its' magical light; suddenly I felt a surge of energy but it was similar to when an outsider attempted to breach the shadows without the necessary power meaning Yugi's friends were outside, I'm surprised they waited so long before making an attempt at charging in.

The Puzzle activated allowing the spirit to take over and he swiftly stood to his feet with a rage burning within those piercing ruby eyes so me and Katherine rose to our feet but remained flanked on either of Other Yugi's sides to show that we were completely supporting him although slightly behind him since the podium wasn't large enough to accommodate all three of us safely.

"Pegasus… I'll never forgive you," Other Yugi vowed. However Pegasus wasn't fazed in the least by this threat, probably because he had his damn edge back now that poor Yugi had been murdered because of his actions and even had the audacity to mockingly ask if Other Yugi intended to continue the duel without his Mind Shuffle. "Yes, until my heart breaks in two there's no 'game over'!" Other Yugi retorted.

In response to this Pegasus encouraging them to continue the duel so Other Yugi restarted it by drawing a card from his deck with Pegasus easily managing to identify it as being the Fortress Protecting, Winged Dragon with Other Yugi proceeding to play the card in defence mode.

 **Fortress Protecting, Winged Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

Since Yugi had been taken out all of Other Yugi's cards were an open book to Pegasus thanks to his Millennium Eye with only the final card that Yugi set being a mystery but how were any of us to know what that card was, I glanced at Katherine who had been close enough to see the card's artwork and could identify it but she couldn't do any such thing without spilling it to Pegasus as well.

Despite knowing that it was a pointless attack, Pegasus proceeded to carry it out anyway thus removing the Winged Dragon from the playing field and I felt a sneer pull at my lips as I tried to think of something but then Pegasus declared that he was going to play a card to ensure Other Yugi's final defeat.

A hole appeared above him and from it fell a creature that all duelists were very familiar with as it was something that no one wanted to encounter with such low Life Points, the faintest ticking sound could be heard emanating from the creature.

 **Time Bomber – Attribute: Fire, Type: Pyro, Level: 2, ATK/200, DEF/1000**

"Time Bomber! The infamous time bomb!" Other Yugi hissed. This creature couldn't be selected as an attack target and in only two turns it would self-destruct thus taking Sacrifice and the captured Black Magician which would take the attack points of each monsters out of their controller's Life Points; which meant Pegasus would be unharmed whilst Other Yugi would lose.

As I looked at Black Magician I saw a pained look crossing over his face as he stared at Other Yugi, Pegasus was in total glee about the scenario that we were currently trapped in with a monster stealing monster and a ticking time bomb set to detonate in two turns, Pegasus mocked that Other Yugi couldn't do anything about this scenario.

"Hey stranger," I softly spoke. Other Yugi turned to look at me and I made sure that our eyes were connected so that he heeded my works without any other distraction. "We're right here, we can't help much but we're right here for you, I know things seem hopeless but a single card can change the course of an entire duel so believe in your deck just like you always have done," I insisted. As I spoke I settled a hand on his shoulder to add physical comfort to my words.


	36. Chapter 36

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc1209 for your review and… well you'll see what they can do for Yugi or rather what Katherine has done.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 36: - Yugi VS. Pegasus: Match of the Millennium (V)

 _I pulled a brush through my hair as I stared at the mirror but it did not show my reflection instead it projected the image of the duel I was currently watching on the physical plane, things were definitely sticky at the moment but I had to believe that there was a chance – no matter how slim – of Other Yugi emerging victorious._

 _A soft groan came from behind me causing me to bolt to my feet and I ran over to the queen size bed with pale purple bedding covering it and within the soft covers was a stirring Yugi Muto so I gently held his hand to make sure he knew I was here._

" _K-Katherine-chan, where are we?" Yugi asked. He slowly began to push himself up so I rearranged the bed of pillows to better support him as he glanced around, scattered across the floor were the numerous games I'd played with a vanity table set against the wall near a door that was brilliant silver in colour, the table held a brush and some simply jewellery._

 _Another prominent part of the room we were in was the entire wall of books that rested on the left side of the bed filled with fictional stories, mythological texts and some books on magic with a reddish-gold door lying next to it, Yugi was in shock as he glanced around before turning to look at me in confusion._

" _This is my Soul Room, Yugi. It a spiritual representation of the person, using my magic I drew you into myself to protect you from the shadows, it was safer that trying to heal you physically otherwise I might have been snatched instead," I explained. Yugi seemed to be processing this information but I needed to tell him something so I brought him over to the reddish-gold door which held the kanji for his name etched onto its' surface._

" _We're connected now, this kind of bond can't be broken by anything. I'm sorry but there was no other way to save you," I apologised. As I did my face turned down, normally I tried to avoid doing these kinds of things but in this case it was unavoidable, suddenly hands appeared under my chin forcing me to look up at Yugi._

" _Don't apologise Katherine-chan. You did what you thought was right" Yugi reassured. It was nice to know that the kind boy wasn't blaming me for this act of binding our souls together. "How is the duel going?" Yugi spoke. I smiled and dragged him over to the vanity table allowing him to look out into the physical world through my eyes._

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

Reassured that Yugi was going to be recovering much quick than I had expected after nearly dying here in the Shadow Realm, but perhaps his soul was stronger than any of us actually knew, my consciousness returned to the real world where Pegasus was gloating about something but I couldn't be bothered to pay much attention to his words.

"Hey stranger," Kylie softly spoke. Other Yugi turned to look at my sister who met his gaze firmly with her own burning green eyes. "We're right here, we can't help much but we're right here for you, I know things seem hopeless but a single card can change the course of an entire duel so believe in your deck just like you always have done," Kylie insisted. As she spoke Kylie settled a hand on his shoulder to add physical comfort to the words she had spoken.

Then I felt a strong energy sweep over us, it was old and wise yet I could not see the one who summoned this energy although Other Yugi's eyes were glazed over and I believed that perhaps he was receiving a message on the spiritual plane then his eyes snapped back to reality with a determined fire burning within them.

"His friends, they haven't given up on him," Other Yugi insisted. I didn't know if such a belief would actually be able to help us in this regard, but it was nice to know that those who couldn't be hear physically were still trying to fight in the spiritual sense, their bond was impressive in its' power.

" _Hey Katherine-chan that gives me an idea. Could you combine your magic and my friends' bond to create a protective barrier over the Other Me's mind?"_ Yugi asked. That was an idea but I wasn't the best at protection spell although if I used something as a basis for the spell that it might be enough to counteract the Millennium Eyes.

" _One moment please. Kylie! Urgent talk! Now!"_ I insisted. My sister physically nearly jumped probably having not been expecting me to push through her mental barriers at such a crucial time but she did turn slightly to look at me as I felt her mind pushing back towards me.

" _What Katherine? If you haven't notice we're in a bit of a pickle at the moment,"_ Kylie snapped. The duel was clearly fraying at her nerves especially after Yugi's perceived death so I quickly informed her of the young boy's plan – although I didn't mention the boy's situation – which caused her eyes to widen. _"You sure this will work?"_ Kylie asked. I shrugged my shoulders but at the moment it was better than nothing so Kylie reached out her right hand to my left which we linked and then pointed out free hands toward Other Yugi.

As we began to softly chant the spell we needed, Other Yugi made the move by drawing up his card and so that enabled us to feel the pressure of Pegasus trying to break into Other Yugi's mind, at first it appeared that Other Yugi was attempting to block him from seeing it so the card appeared blank but Pegasus pushed harder in order to break through… however he was too late.

Our spell settled over Other Yugi's mind and all Pegasus got was the image of an unconscious Yugi being cradled in my arms as Kylie shielded the two of us from that accursed eye whilst the other three stood in front of her, Jounouchi and Honda looked ready for a mental fight whilst Anzu glared at the invader as a glow surrounded me and Kylie in this projection.

"What have you two done?!" Pegasus yelled. The only answer he got from me and my sister was a harsh glare since we weren't going to stop our spell until this duel was over, Other Yugi turned to us and smiled gently, clearly understanding we had done something to help but I doubted he knew everything.

"Thanks to my friends I can save my Black Magician from the blast of your Bomber's detonator," Other Yugi declared. Pegasus refused to believe this obviously unable to comprehend that me and Kylie had actually been able to stop his Millennium Eye and even called all of us pathetic little friends. "The power of your Millennium Eye is not capable of tearing down the wall of our feelings," Other Yugi insisted.

With our protection in place Other Yugi could fight back without any concerns as he threw out the Magic Box of Death which switched Time Bomber and Black Magician thus imprisoning that accursed detonator and allowing Black Magician to return to Other Yugi's side and I swear he had never looked more relieved than in that moment.

 **Sacrifice – ATK/2500 – ATK/200, DEF/2100 – DEF/1000**

Pegasus cursed this move and simply drew a card before passing his turn so Other Yugi withdrew a card from the deck as he stared at the card, thanks to the protection I was able to see that it was Brain Control but I didn't see how that would be able to help in this situation.

" _Katherine-chan, my card. Tell the Other Me to play it on this turn,"_ Yugi insisted. I nodded recalling the artwork for a second before casting it away thus preventing Pegasus from trying anything, I used the protection to tug on Other Yugi's mind causing him to turn around and face me with confusion on his face.

"Yugi says to play his card this turn," I spoke. Other Yugi's face was confused before realisarion settled on it only to be washed away by relief as the faintest twitch of a smile appeared on his face especially when I was able to pass on the card's identity to him through the mental link provided by our spell.

Other Yugi turned back to the podium as Kylie raised an eyebrow at me but I'd tell her later as Other Yugi proceeded to use Brain Control to take control of Sacrifice thus bringing it and the dangerous bomb attached to it over to his side of the field causing Kylie's hand to tighten obviously feeling slightly worried about how this strategy would turn out but then Pegasus laughed.

"Have you completely forgotten about the time bomb on him? By doing such a stupid thing, your Black Magician will be blown up by Time Bomber and you'll **lose**!" Pegasus declared. However due to the knowledge that had been passed onto him thanks to Yugi, the spirit was hardly afraid of this as he touched the face down card.

"Is that so? I still have a set card, the card left behind by Yugi!" Other Yugi reminded. He then flipped the card over revealing that it was a ritual card known as Chaos – Black Magic Ritual which caused two totems to appear on either side of a stone table. "I sacrifice Time Bomber and Black Magician for the ritual," Other Yugi revealed.

The two named monsters briefly appeared over the totems before vanishing and thus with Time Bomber removed, it prevented the detonation effect ensuring that Other Yugi had a few more turns left in this duel before it was over.

 **Sacrifice – ATK/200 – ATK/0, DEF/1000 – DEF/0**

Upon the table a red seal appeared and then a swirling vortex of magical wind erupted from the table spiralling upwards until it impacted the 'roof' of the dome which caused the wind to spread out across the dome and as a figure descended from the newly formed cloud bank, Other Yugi revealed this individual was known as the Magician of Black Chaos.

 **Magician of Black Chaos – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster/Ritual, Level: 8, ATK/2800, DEF/2600**

"Yugi left behind but one card when he was on the verge of collapsing. The Chaos – Black Magic Ritual! The magician born from chaos, the fusion of light and darkness! Controller of insanity! The master of all magicians!" Other Yugi declared. At last the magician landed on the table that had been summoned showing that he was ready to fight. "Pegasus! This is our trump card! Using this trump card, I will defeat you!" Other Yugi insisted. Both duelists glowed with an intense light showing off their fighting spirits that refused to give up on this duel until the very end.

Then the spirit proceeded to lay a card face down in the Spell and Trap zone and slid a monster into play face down defence mode, naturally our protection spell prevented Pegasus' Millennium Eye from seeing into Other Yugi's mind thus ensuring that they were kept a secret from him.

"My turn! The brainwashing effect on Sacrifice have worn off and he becomes my monster again," Pegasus stated. Sacrifice proceeded to return to its' creator's side and I was partially worried about what would happen now that Pegasus could easily drag Magician of Black Chaos over to become Sacrifice's new shield, my worry was calmed when Kylie physically tightened her grip and Yugi spiritual settled an arm around my shoulders.

"I'll use my trump card to teach you and your little comrades just how meaningless this 'friendship' you speak of is! I play two cards on the field, I'll power up Sacrifice's Special Effect even further with this. I fuse Thousand Eyes Pagan God together with Sacrifice," Pegasus declared. As he did the surface of Sacrifice began to bubble and writhe causing both myself and Yugi to feel somewhat sick upon seeing the spectacle. "The Evil God, Thousand Eyes Sacrifice," Pegasus revealed.

 **Thousand Eyes Sacrifice – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster/Fusion, Level: 1, ATK/0, DEF/0**

"Yugi-boy, this duel will signal the grand finale of the Kingdom. You will be cursed with a cruel defeat," Pegasus gloated. Whilst I didn't want to know what Pegasus was talking about, I knew that I really didn't want to see those eyes open something told me that if that thing opened its' eyes we were going to be in serious trouble in this duel.

Other Yugi was confident that the results of this duel would only be known once it ended however Pegasus claimed that the Magician would be incapable of protecting even himself once Thousand Eyes Sacrifice activated its' accursed effect however Other Yugi held firm to the belief that Yugi's final card would save us all so I took strength from his resolute belief.

"The final turn," Pegasus declared. The monster obeyed the man's orders as those one thousand eyes proceeded to open fully revealing their cruel piercing gaze right onto the magician who seemed to be prepared for anything however green light shot out of all the eyes and ended up surrounding Magician of Black Chaos pulling apart his fighting stance.

"Black Chaos," Other Yugi protested. That sickening gaze had entrapped the magician preventing him from doing anything and Pegasus claimed that there was no escape from the gaze since it blanketed all of Other Yugi's field even ensnaring the monster that was currently face down which meant both were ripe for assimilation by that creepy thing.

"All that remains now is for me to activate the central Evil Eye! I'll suck in your monster and steal its' powers," Pegasus gloated. Pegasus activated Sacrifice's Special Effect to draw the trapped magician towards him however Other Yugi proceeded to activate his set card revealing that it was a Spell card.

With Other Yugi's declaration a purple light began to emit from Sacrifice and Pegasus taunted Other Yugi but he was soon forced to fall silent as multiple Kuriboh's began to appear in front of Magician of Black Chaos thus serving to severely confuse Pegasus.

"You've made a grave miscalculation. Activating your Evil Eye also affected my set card Kuriboh. That effect will now target him as well," Other Yugi revealed. Pegasus asked when this had happened whilst Other Yugi simply continued on by revealing that his face down card in the Spell and Trap zone happened to be Multiply which would explain the numerous Kuribohs.

Since the assimilation had started and couldn't be stopped, the Kuribohs were forcibly dragged towards Thousand Eyes Sacrifice much more easily than Magician of Black Chaos due to their much smaller size and since they kept multiply exponentially that meant that there were more Kuribohs than Sacrifice could absorb.

As a result Sacrifice became clogged up in a sense preventing any more of Other Yugi's monsters from being absorbed by that accursed creature and as a result of the Kuribohs being absorb they proceeded to emerge from Sacrifice effectively covering all one thousand eyes of Pegasus' monster.

 **Thousand Eyes Sacrifice – ATK/0 – ATK/300, DEF/0 – DEF/200**

"Thousand Eyes Sacrifice is trying to absorb the countless Kuribohs!" Pegasus exclaimed. Other Yugi took this opportunity to inform Pegasus that due to the Special Effect that the cute little fur balls carried that once attacked Kuriboh acted as a living land mine and that meant many explosions were about to occur so I squeezed my eyes shut awaiting the time to come.

Loud bangs that left a sharp ringing sound echoing within my ear drums sounded across the duel arena, I opened my eyes as Pegasus damned Other Yugi for what he had done and the Kuribohs for the part that they had played for the damage dealt to Thousand Eyes Sacrifice.

"With Kuriboh's death, my Life points decrease by three hundred points. However all of Thousand Eyes Sacrifice's thousand eyes were destroyed," Other Yugi admitted. The fusion monster was smoking with all one thousand eyes closed having been rendered useless thanks to the multitude of explosions that had direct contact to the eyes.

 **Yugi – LP: 400 – LP: 100**

"And at this moment, Magician of Black Chaos is freed from its' curse! Are you prepared, Pegasus? My turn!" Other Yugi declared. Pegasus realised that now all of his plotting, planning and manipulations had failed; Other Yugi commanded his magician to attack the defenceless fusion creature and it was easy to see where this was going.

Lightning briefly crackled across the spellcaster's staff before he seized it and slammed the tip into the ground thus unleashing an orb of crackling lightning that charged across the ground towards Thousand Eyes Sacrifice causing another explosion which completely annihilated the creature.

"Thousand Eye Sacrifice was beaten," Other Yugi declared. With its' destruction I could already feel the shadow dome beginning to break apart around us which allowed the power of my Gauntlet to flare brighter and stronger as it assisted me in finishing the repairs upon Yugi's soul.

" _He did!"_ Yugi cheered. A smile creeped its' way across my face at the young boy's joy since it was very well deserved after all the struggles that both he and this mysterious spirit had been through to reach this point and it seems the fruits of their labour had finally come to be seen today.

 **Pegasus – LP: 600 – LP: 0**

"Hell yes!" Kylie cheered. She dropped my hand which caused the spell of protection to be broken but it hardly mattered due to the fact that with the duel over there was no need for us to keep this protective spell up and it was confirmed that Yugi had finished with his healing so I reached out to Other Yugi's back with my Gauntlet and lay it over where his heart was located.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

 _With Yugi fully healed and the duel over I took the boy's hand and guided him over to the door that held his name which caused Yugi to look at me rather concerned as I placed his hand on the door allowing him to feel the magic that radiated from it._

" _Time to go home Yugi," I insisted. The boy looked at the door and seemed to be rather nervous but he pushed against the door causing it to open revealing a corridor beyond it, Yugi looked at me and I nodded so the boy smiled and he proceeded to step into the corridor returning to his body as the door swung shut on its' own._

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

As Yugi left my mind a golden glow flowed from me into him as Other Yugi returned control of the body to Yugi, Kylie rested her hand on Yugi's shoulder whilst I entwined my hand with Yugi's as the boy lifted his head to look at the man who had caused so much toil and terror for the poor boy and his friends.

"Pegasus, we've won!" Yugi firmly declared. Pegasus appeared to be in complete shock over the fact that he had lost and due to the Shadow Game being finished the dome began to fade away thus allowing for us to return to our own reality.

"Yugi!" Three voice cried behind us. All of us turned to face the three who stumbled slightly clearly surprised to see the two of us standing at Yugi's side since they failed to get in but I gently pushed Yugi towards them as the three congratulated the boy on his victory over Pegasus thus ensuring that the captured souls would be set free.

"We've got problem," Kylie called. Everyone stopped celebrating to look at my sister whose gaze was settled firmly on the podium opposite us so we looked and saw that it was completely abandoned. "Pegasus booked. I know where he's going though, follow me," Kylie insisted. Without waiting for a response my sister took off away from the arena.

"Come on," I insisted. Quickly following after my sister I heard the sound of people following us thus letting me know that they were coming and I only hoped that we would catch up to Pegasus in time.


	37. Chapter 37

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc1209 and The Jingo for your reviews.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 37: - Soul Room

"Bakura woke up to watch over Mokuba's body for us so he's safe," Jounouchi reassured. I only nodded in response to those words, I was still rather worried about the dark energy that Bakura had been expelling earlier but chasing down Pegasus was much more important at the moment.

The six of us ran out of the castle onto a turret passageway with a tower standing off in the distance, which rose above much higher than any other part of the castle with Jounouchi reassuring Yugi that Pegasus couldn't have gotten far ahead of us.

"You sure this is the right way Kylie?" Honda asked. I was a little more focused on running towards the destination that Pegasus would have retreated to so it took a little while for the question to actually process through my brain but when it did I looked back at the brunette boy.

"Trust me it's right," I reassured. My head snapped back to the front however a sudden exclamation from Anzu caused all of us to stop and we all proceeded to glance back at the brunette girl who was still staring ahead of us. "What is it? We're running out of time!" I exclaimed. For the girl to stop so suddenly I really hoped that she had seen Pegasus or something else that was important like Seto's body.

"He's probably there…" Anzu spoke. The three boys were rather confused by what their friend had said as she gestured towards the tower that stood near us. "At the top of that tower, Pegasus' secret room. But my memory's not clear and I thought I was dreaming," Anzu admitted. She walked towards the edge of the passage we were running across with Honda coming to stand next to her.

The brunette boy admitted that he had been suffering from a similar thing as the girl but they ended up confusing us so Jounouchi demanded an answer although I settled a hand on his shoulder causing the blonde to calm down from his agitated state as they explained that they had sneaked inside along with Bakura and in there the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring appeared once more.

"That tower is a private room that only Pegasus is allowed to enter. It's also where we're going," I revealed. Turning around I began to continue on my way towards the tower however there weren't any other sounds of people following me but I kept walking hoping that they would come following after me.

"Hold it. How do you know so much about this place and Pegasus?" Jounouchi asked. His tone was rather accusatory but I could understand why, a deep breath was pulled into my lungs as I tipped my head backwards to look up at the sky.

"It's because Pegasus is mine and Katherine's half uncle. Our father had a… disagreement with his own so he took his mother's maiden name when he was eighteen as his legal surname," I admitted. It was probably best that I not turn around to look at their faces and instead I decided to continue on to make sure that Pegasus would release the three souls as he promised and then the sound of feet following after me came meaning that they were coming with me.

"If the spirit of the Ring is back then that's a problem we've got to deal with," Katherine admitted. My sister was correct, we couldn't leave such a dangerous being running around especially if he was using the body of one of our friends to do so, the only problem was how to deal with such a thing since I didn't know for sure.

"No, that evil spirit showed up and tried to take the important information that Mokuba had on Kaiba Corporation but I took the Ring and tossed it into the forest around the castle," Honda revealed. That would at least explain why the dark energy had been occurring rapidly since the spirit would probably have been fighting with its' powers in order to claim the boy for that information.

I had a problem with Honda's solution though, if that spirit was able to crawl its' way back from the graveyard that he had been banished to then I doubted simply throwing the Ring away would be able to solve the situation but unless something actually happened to confirm my suspicions about that Millennium Item then I couldn't do anything about that.

Silence stretched over us as we continued to run towards the tower which I was rather grateful for as I couldn't deal with the questions about our familial connection to Pegasus however, I most certainly did not approve of the tactics that my paternal uncle had used in this tournament and I was fully intent on getting answers from him even if I had to start punching the crazy card maker to get them.

A surge of magic washed over the castle but not enough to stop me from running only enough for me to confirm it was a Millennium Item but since all of them I had seen felt familiar then I couldn't tell exactly who it was but a quick glance denied that it was either of the bearers who were in my company causing a small frown to form on my face.

Unexpectedly a more powerful surge of magic shot across the castle making it feel like a punch had flown straight into my stomach resulted in me stumbling to my knees and scraping the palms of my hands with a small cry confirming that Katherine had also felt the magical surge of energy.

"Hey are you two ok?" Yugi asked. I shakily pushed myself up as I turned to see Katherine on her side also looking shaken by what we had just felt which caused my lips to twist into a snarl as I forced myself up fully onto my feet although I swayed slightly until Jounouchi clamped a hand onto my shoulder in order to keep myself from collapsing again.

"We're fine but we need to keep moving. Now," I snapped. That magical surge had been strong enough to knock me **and** Katherine to the ground, that mean whoever or whatever the source was, was **very** powerful; as if intent on making things worse for us a sharp masculine scream went up causing my dizziness to immediately drain away as I looked over towards the tower from where the scream had originated.

"Uncle Pegasus!" Katherine exclaimed. I shouldn't have been surprised by the term of endearment she used for the man despite everything, but knowing who the scream had come from only got me to start running even faster towards the tower with the others following after me rather quickly however by the time we got inside it was apparent that we were far too late to do any help.

Crocketts, the thug who kidnapped Mokuba and some more of Pegasus' goons were carrying the unconscious form of Pegasus down the steps with the others firing questions at Crocketts hoping for answers however Crocketts didn't give us any answers probably because he didn't know anything any way only that Pegasus had been attacked, so I glanced up at the stairs.

"His sanctuary might hold clues, let's go," I softly insisted. That scream and then seeing my uncle's unconscious state wasn't something I could cope with at the moment so I focused on something I could handle, like getting answers for Yugi about the trapped souls, without another word I started ascending the steps with the others following after me.

I guided them up to the top – only – floor which held a simply décor of a table, a painting with fabric draping around the room and a single window that was closed; the painting was of a beautiful blonde woman with gentle grey eyes, an equally gentle smile on her face as she sat on a chair staring out from the canvas, Katherine walked over and gently traced her hand over the impressive painting.

"That lady sure is pretty," Jounouchi commented. A small frown pulled at my lips as Katherine dropped her hand from the painting when Anzu called our attention over to a book that she identified as a diary although a card fell out which Yugi revealed to have a picture of the same woman on it as well.

"That's Aunt Cyndia, she i- was Uncle Pegasus' wife," Katherine revealed. The others proceeded to look at her as confusion swirled on their faces but Anzu admitted she couldn't read all of the diary because it was written in English since Pegasus was technically American so I held out my hand to the brunette girl.

"I'm family, so I should read it and I can translate for you guys," I insisted. Anzu's expression softened as she understood my reasons whilst everyone gathered around me to listen to the words that Pegasus had written with the hope that it would give us some insight into the inner working of the man's mind.

"To the one who defeats me and becomes the new Duelist King and my beloved nieces, why did I create Duel Monsters? In order to explain this mystery I must talk about this angelic woman… Pegasus must have written this just in case he lost and he knew I'd demand answers." I spoke. From the words that I had read it was clear that he was talking about Cyndia but how was she connected to all of this, she had died when Katherine was only nine before Duel Monsters was created.

"Cyndia, that was the name of this young woman, she was my lover and she passed away from this world when I was only seventeen. It had been fourteen years since I met her, my father was a wealthy man who managed casinos in Las Vegas. In the evening important people assembled for parties and at that time I met the daughter of my dad's friend, Cyndia, we were attracted to each other, my half-brother George would tease me merciless for my instant attraction to her," I read.

The mere mention of my father caused a small smile to quirk on my lips, it definitely seemed like something he would do, teasing his own brother relentless for something as simple as a crush on a pretty young girl, he did it to me enough even though he was my father.

"We have always talked about our dreams, I dreamed of becoming an artist and to travel to many countries. We swore the two of us would live together, soon after I turned seventeen Cyndia died of an illness. For months I stared at the blank canvas of my heart and pushed away the comfort of my brother and his own family," I read more.

Those days had to be to darkest ones I remembered, Pegasus would lash out at everyone who tried to comfort him and shut himself away, sometimes we though he was dead with how long he would be gone from our lives before miraculous coming back for a short time only to vanish again soon afterwards.

"At that time, I had heard about how according to Ancient Egyptian belief, souls lived on after death, perhaps I could meet Cyndia if I used the technique handed down in Ancient Egypt. I visited Egypt with that purpose in mind, in a certain village in Egypt I met a young man, this man knew why I had come to Egypt and told me to leave immediately as I wouldn't heal in that place. But I did not heed this man's words, for if he knew why I had come here, then surely he must know of a way for me to reunite with Cyndia… or so I thought," I read.

This man… I wondered if he was perhaps the one that had appeared in the painting that sat alongside Cyndia's in the dining room we had eaten within on the night before the final duels began, I was also curious as to how he knew about Pegasus' pain.

"I followed him to a passage that seemed to lead to the bowels of the earth, yet still I followed and my footsteps led me to a hidden crypt apparently buried beneath centuries of civilisation. It was then that I was dragged further in to the crypt and the man who revealed he guarded these Millennium Items forced me to undergo a trial to see if I was worthy to wield a Millennium Item or die as a result. He forced the Millennium Eye upon me and for a moment I saw her beautiful face only to learn it was an illusion granted to me by the Eye to see beyond this world; I should have once again been engulfed by despair but seeing Cyndia for that brief moment gave me more hope that I thought possible," I continued.

"It might have been lingering affection but I wanted to see Cyndia again, later I became aware of Kaiba Corporation's Virtual Simulation System, in order to materialise Cyndia's card Kaiba Corporation had to be mine, no matter what it took and to bring her back to me for good it would require the power of all Millennium Items," I finished. With that I proceeded to snap the dairy closed as my arms became lax forcing them to hang at my sides. "All this time… it was to get the love of his life back, I just thought he went crazy," I admitted. Reading this dairy had given me a severe shock at how blind I'd been to my uncle's pain and it really made me want to punch myself .

The others were contemplative probably realising Pegasus wasn't so different to Yugi, Seto or Jounouchi, his actions had been motivated by love just like theirs, Yugi then noticed three Soul Cards that happened to be empty implying that all three had bee set free thus there was no reason for us to remain, I set Pegasus' dairy back on the table whilst the others took off down the stairs so I moved over to catch up to them only to freeze in my tracks with Katherine before me and Yugi in front of her also stopped still.

The ground before Yugi began to ripple then a man rose up out of the ground, he had dark skin with a white turban wrapped around his head and gold earrings handing from his earlobes, he wore an outfit that was similar to something that I had seen an Egyptian national wear years ago, his eyes were closed but once opened they were a blueish shade with no pupils and around his neck was a golden key partially shaped like the Ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life… it was the man from the painting.

He looked at the three of us and his eyes widened upon seeing Yugi, he began to approach us and removed the key from around his neck and held it out towards Yugi yet none of us could move to do anything, almost ass if we'd been paralysed, when the key touched Yugi's forehead it was turned and the two became as still as statues yet me and Katherine were free to move.

"Damnit, this has to be a Millennium Item. If this guy is in his mind then I'm going in," I spoke. Katherine nodded too worried to speak so I raised my right hand and pointed it at Yugi's forehead, a silver aura surrounded me whilst my bracelet glowed slightly as my eyes drifted close.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

 _When my eyes opened I saw that I was in a different area which was a corridor that had two doors, one on either side, the first was akin to Katherine's Soul Room but more masculine implying an innocent and kind soul dwelled here meaning that it had to be Yugi's room and I saw the purple door that connected him to my sister._

 _I turned around to see the other Soul Room which was ancient with a steel door that had the eye symbol on it that was a recurring theme on Millennium Items, I walked over to the door and seized the handle pushing it open, that man had to be in this room since I would have seen him in Yugi's room given its' small size and open door, he couldn't reach Katherine through the door that connected them since it was for Yugi alone._

 _The door swung open creakingly almost like something from an ancient tomb which sent my instincts on high alert as I cautiously stepped inside however there was nothing except shadows to greet me, then the door slammed shut causing me to be shrouded in darkness so I tensed up listening for any sound that echoed around me allowing me to hear footsteps approaching me from behind._

 _I snapped around and swung my leg out towards the person however it was seized and my body thrown onto the floor, then something crashing onto me pinning my arms above my head so I immediately began struggling against the person that dared to hold me captive but all I got was a husky chuckle right by my ear._

" _You're a fascinating queen Kylie," Other Yugi spoke. I froze upon hearing his voice realising it wasn't someone dangerous so I relaxed as light suddenly seared into my eyes forcing them closed, whilst my eyesight adjusted I felt myself being pulled up. "I'll ask you later how you came to be in my heart, for now the man went that way but be warned, a Dark Game is afoot in my heart and I would hate for you to become harmed," Other Yugi spoke. My eyes fluttered open and I saw him pointing in a specific direction with a smirk on his face._

" _Thanks, by the way my sixth sense is pretty sharp so I'll be fine," I commented. With that I took off up the steps however navigating this place wouldn't be easy, most time the Soul Room reflected an individual's personality, Yugi's and Katherine's displayed their innocence and kindness whilst mine showed the determination and nobility of my heart – as Kathie described._

 _Yet this place was a labyrinth almost as if the spirit that was represented by this chamber couldn't decide anything as if there were only questions where knowledge should be, I stepped towards a door and pushed it open only to jumped backwards as an axe nearly took my head off, thank Ra for my sixth sense._

 _I continued making my way through this mysterious place searching for the man in the hopes of getting answers from him about his purpose here however this resulted in me opening several more doors which resulted in me dodging more traps which ended up reminding me of those old tombs that my mother explores for her work._

 _Hieroglyphs were scattered across the surface of the stone yet I couldn't truly comprehend any meaning that they might have possessed due to my limited knowledge of the dead language so I kept moving onwards when a cry of shock went up so I began to run towards the source of the voice and found an open door with a fallen floor only a few steps within and someone hanging precariously form the edge._

" _Your hand, give me your hand!" I called. As I did I reached down to the person, I saw it was the man I had chased after and his eyes widened upon seeing me no doubt confused by my presence but he did reach up to me so I took his hand and tried to pull him up but I didn't have enough strength and the other hand was too preoccupied at the moment to help me in that regard._

" _Kylie-san let me help," Yugi insisted. The boy appeared at my side and wrapped his hands around mine and the man's thus allowing us to pull him out of the dangerous pitfall, Yugi glanced at me obviously curious about me but it was more important for us to get answers out of the man for the time being._

" _I didn't think it would be you that saves me or how you came to be here young lady," The man commented. No doubt he had come across traps just as I had although I think even this man had no clue as to why this mysterious man's heart was in such a stumbled mess._

" _Other Me this is enough, release him from the game," Yugi pleaded. I didn't see the spirit anywhere but then a light began to appear from within another room so we walked over to the room and saw stone tablets depicting duel monsters on their surface as the man explained that three thousand years ago in Ancient Egypt, these stone tablets were sealed under the control of the magicians resulting in the battle for the pharaoh's throne beginning with this, the magicians were destroyed as a result so the stone tablets and their powers went to sleep with these stone tablets actually being the origin of our card game._

 _Suddenly lightning lashed down before us causing all three of us to look up only to see that it was the Black Magician who was blocking our path and me without my deck, especially since he seemed to ready to annihilate all of us, the man found a way out by summoning a creature we were currently stood on to fight the Black Magician which ironically turned out to be Blue-Eyes White Dragon… I silently hoped that wasn't some kind of omen_

" _Stop!" Yugi insisted. The man was confused by this but I couldn't blame Yugi for not wanting to see his most precious card destroyed even if the Spellcaster did stand against us in this regard. "Black Magician is my card," Yugi explained. With that the brave young boy move in front of the Black Magician so I went with him. "Black Magician we aren't here in this room to cause chaos! Allow us to escape from this room!" Yugi pleaded._

" _Please Black Magician, we mean your master no harm, he is someone we care about and wish to help," I added on. The magician stared at the two of us for a silent moment before lowering his sceptre and we turned to look at the man who was completely shocked by our accomplishment._

 _A bright light began to emanate from the Black Magician thus forcing me to throw my hands up in order to protect my eyes with the other two also following my example._

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

I felt my soul return to my body as my eyes fluttered open with both Yugi and the man also returning to the physical plane whilst Katherine looked between all three of us clearly unsure about what had happened as the man lowered his key from Yugi's forehead.

"Tell this to the 'Other You'. It was my mistake accusing him of being a criminal and stealing the Millennium Eye. In order to find the criminal I met something unexpected. From today you and the 'Other You' will unlock the true power hidden in the Millennium Puzzle and these two ladies will be at your side supporting both of you. For three thousand years you have kept the secret sealed away, that is the fate of the one who solved it," The man spoke as he saw my bracelet and the Gauntlet.

"Hang on, what do you mean? Who are you?" Katherine asked. The man walked down the steps obviously intent on leaving however he stopped and looked back at us.

"You have to watch out, another person looking for the Millennium Puzzle has come close, a Millennium Item possessor," The man warned. Those last three words were repeated by Yugi and my thoughts immediately snapped to the evil spirit that possessed Bakura. "As for my name it is Shadi," The man responded. With that the mysterious man proceeded to disappear just as he had appeared.

"Ok someone explain now?!" Katherine demanded. We had a lot to tell my little sister.


	38. Chapter 38

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc1209 and Atarya QueenofEgypt for your reviews.**

 **To Atarya QueenofEgypt, the words in bold are to put emphasis on unless they're at the beginning since this differentiates from the rest of the text, to alexc1209, that transition is indeed coming and I also felt like a sucker punch hit me when learning of Pegasus' wife, I still cry today, but he didn't know Katherine had the Gauntlet, he knew it existed but Katherine and Kylie hid it well, he knew of the magic in their blood and assumed it was that not a Millennium Item.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy**

Chapter 38: - The Wrath of Rebecca

As we moved to catch up with the others, Kylie and Yugi filled me in on what had occurred within the spirit's Soul Room which was rather surprising and weird to say the least, things had definitely gotten much more confusing after the events of the tournament concerning Yugi, the spirit and Pegasus but if what Shadi said was true then things were only going to get worse.

We caught up with the others and proceeded to return to where the duel arena was located as Jounouchi called up to Bakura asking if the white haired boy was still with Mokuba who, with his soul released from its' prison, should have been waking up or had already woken up by now.

"Yes I'm with Mokuba, he's coming around," Bakura responded. A sigh of relief escape me upon learning that my young friend was returning from his time within the Shadow Realm, we entered to where the two were located and Kylie yanked the young boy straight into a bone crushing hug which caused Mokuba to begin squirming slightly.

"Kylie, I'm ok but you're crushing me," Mokuba protested. Kylie loosened her grip but didn't let go of him so Mokuba returned the hug and I saw his wide grey eyes shimmering with unshed tears, I gently placed my hand on his hair and began to stroke it in a soothing motion.

"Who would have believe Pegasus would've kept his word," Honda commented. I didn't blame them for such a lack of belief after Pegasus had toyed with them for so long it did seem like he might not have actually released the three souls he had taken hostage and used as leverage over Yugi and the spirit.

"For all his faults my uncle will always be a man of his word," I stated. The others nodded and turned to focus on Mokuba as Kylie finally released him from her hug. "Mokuba I think it's time we get off this island if you're ready," I suggested. Mokuba turned to look at me however he had an unsure look within his eyes.

"Not without Seto, where's my big brother?" Mokuba protested. Everyone turned to look at Honda however he only shook his head making it known that he hadn't found the elder Kaiba and that meant Seto could be anywhere on this damned island so we had a lot of searching to do if we wanted to located him.

It was at that moment that Crocketts appeared and called out to the two finalists informing us that Pegasus couldn't attend because of the fact that he had to go to hospital due to the theft of his Millennium Eye which caused my eyes to flicker down Bakura.

"Take this," Crocketts insisted. He got closer to us and held up a box with a Duel Monsters card contained within it that had a young blonde girl displayed on it in a pink dress with outstretched white wings and her arms were crossed over her chest, the box was held out directly to Yugi.

"This, is it…?" Yugi asked. Crocketts revealed it was a one of a kind card known as the Bonds of Friendship hand painted by Pegasus, Yugi was officially crowned King of Duelists as the cheque for the reward money was given to Yugi in an envelope. "Kylie?" Yugi asked. It was abundantly clear what the kind boy was asking my sister without any words.

"I'm rich and don't need it, if you want Yugi give it Jounouchi," Kylie responded. Yugi smiled in response and so the knuckle head received the cheque that would save his sister although the celebrations were soon cut off when Crocketts took his leave of us which allowed us to begin our search for the older Kaiba.

We went out into the courtyard where Mokuba began calling out to his brother hoping that the cold boy would hear his voice then the doors leading out of the castle creaked open and standing there was a fully alive Seto Kaiba causing Mokuba to charge towards his brother who walked towards him as Mokuba threw a hug around him.

Kylie also walked over and promptly wacked Seto upside the head causing the brunette to grab the offended area and glared at Kylie who cocked an eyebrow at the cold look that was being sent towards her but neither look held any venom that had been present the last time that these two exchanged words.

"You're an idiot, do something like that again and I'll really hit you," Kylie informed. Seto let out a sigh as his glare dropped since he returned his focus to Mokuba who had finally let his tears cascade down his cheeks, me and Kylie pushed the others back as the two brothers shared their tearful reunion in peace but once over Seto rose back to his feet and looked at Yugi.

"Yugi, you saved Mokuba. I owe you one," Seto admitted. The young man was much softer than before truly showing his gratitude with Yugi asking how he could do anything else. "But Yugi, don't you forget that our duel is not over yet," Seto admitted. Yugi agreed to this sentiment which meant that they would be gearing up for another match whenever that may be.

Suddenly the sound of a helicopter approaching cut off all noise from us and we looked up to see the white machine with a blue stripe around it but embronzed on the side was a golden capital H with the top right and lower left parts having loops added to them which was the symbol of our family company.

"That would be our ride Katherine. Yugi, Jounouchi, Seto, Mokuba… others; I'm sure we'll meet again but until then your questions must wait," Kylie spoke. Honda, Bakura and Anzu did an anime fall when Kylie glossed over them but Yugi looked ready to protest so I placed a hand on his shoulder causing him to stop.

" _If Shadi's right we'll meet again_ ," I spoke through our bond. Yugi jumped slightly but nodded then voices called down to us as a ladder was dropped down, both myself and Kylie took a grip on the ladder and began to climb up, once inside the helicopter its' door was closed and we took off towards America passing by a Kaiba Corporation helicopter obviously going to pick up the others since all the boats would be gone by now.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

Two days had passed since me and Kylie had returned to our homeland and at the moment we were resting with Kylie sketching in her notebook and me solving a puzzle when a tingle of magic permeated the air causing both of us to still except to raised our heads to look at the reason for the magic sensation.

Slight before us were Andromeda and Athena, slightly floating off the ground and translucent – there yet not there almost like ghosts – it was another gift me and Kylie possessed, we could see these Duel Spirits and communicate with them, they provided us with wisdom and support when we needed them.

" _My ladies, it is urgent that you head for Domino City in Japan. I sense something important about that city… perhaps connected to the destiny I have known would come for you both,"_ Andromeda revealed. Kylie sat up much straighter obviously intrigued by what her partner was talking about.

" _Andromeda is correct. The time we saw is coming to when your powers will be necessary to help save the world,"_ Athena added. When your Spirit Partner gives you a doomsday warning, it is best to listen to it and so Kylie pulled out her phone, she immediately began talking to our father arranging transport and housing for us, since Kylie was eighteen it was perfectly legal for her to look after me in America but Japan was different so it might take time.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

A few days later resulted in myself and Kylie having moved to Domino City, most of our stuff had been bought as well so at our moment the two of us were walking down the streets, Kylie wore a pair of black bell bottom jeans with a long sleeved green top that had silver embroidery around her collar and base, with dark brown riding boots covering her feet as her hair was allowed to flow free down to the middle of her back.

In my case I wore a purple knee-length, long sleeved dress embroidered with roses with black tights and purple ballet flats covered my feet, our mother's homeland was much chiller than America but it was still rather pleasant seeing the cherry blossom trees however our peace was shattered by the angry and loud voice of a young female.

We looked over in the direction it was coming from which happened to be across from us seeing that the person behind the noise; it was a young girl of only twelve with blonde hair pulled into pigtails with pale green eyes, she wore a blue turtle neck top covered by a pink cardigan with yellow edges, a red skirt with knee high socks and near knee high brown boots with stacks of luggage by her and her arms around a dark brown bear in overalls with a black muzzle.

"Hurry up and give it back! It's mine. Blue-Eyes White Dragon was an American super-rare card, it is only right that I, America's number one duelist, should have it. Right Teddy?" The young girl lectured. Amazingly the person she was lecturing was amongst the group that had stopped before her which consisted of Yugi and his friends along with an older man who had to be Yugi's grandfather.

The young girl was Rebecca Hopkins another friend of mine and Kylie's, she was a dueling prodigy and had become the American Regional Champion but this was the first time I had ever heard of her mention to be the rightful owner of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Due to her youthful age the others didn't believe her except for Yugi who had read about her before they left for Duelist Kingdom but Jounouchi was still disbelieving which resulted in him and Rebecca breaking out into an argument over dueling credentials.

"Oh I know all about that, Third Place went to Katsuya Jounouchi and Kathie, Second Place went to Miss Kylie – which I still can't believe – and First Place went to Yugi Muto. But only first place matters," Rebecca commented. Jounouchi got angered at her whilst I sighed and Kylie rolled her eyes, Rebecca still didn't understand true dueling no matter how hard the two of us had tried to teach her.

"Rebecca the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is an important card to me" Yugi's grandfather admitted. However this resulted in Rebecca accusing Yugi's grandfather of being a thief so naturally Yugi began to defend his grandfather from this accusation but Rebecca wasn't giving up so me and Kylie ran over.

"Rebecca!" Kylie yelled. Everyone looked over to see us as I waved whilst Kylie lifted Rebecca up by her cardigan with a displeased look on her face. "My little protégé, you're acting unbecoming of a duelist, now do as I taught you and act like a lady," Kylie commented. She set Rebecca down who dusted herself off before turning to them.

"If you refuse to hand over my Blue-Eyes White Dragon then I request the right to challenge you to a duel for it," Rebecca demanded calmly. Everyone was still shocked by our sudden appearance but Yugi recovered himself swiftly and immediately protested the challenge but didn't get the reason out although I knew it concerned what Seto had done to the other Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Sadly Rebecca wouldn't listen and directly challenged the old man calling him Suguroku Muto and refused to listen to reason insisting that they head for the arena; so a quick call ahead by Kylie and a little kindness from Mokuba got us into a duel arena owned by Kaiba Corporation although there was no one watching which I felt better about.

Rebecca was determined to get this duel underway although Yugi wasn't too thrilled about his grandfather putting himself in danger after recovering his soul only recently, but it seemed that Suguroku was determined to face off against the young girl with Rebecca getting annoyed by the indecision that was currently going on.

"Rebecca I'll be your opponent. Grandpa just got out of the hospital, he's not well enough to duel," Yugi offered. Rebecca agreed to this offer and after some words of advice from Suguroku, the two off them took their positions on the podiums yet unlike the times before, Yugi remained as Yugi implying that the boy wanted to teach a lesson to Rebecca personally so he kept the spirit out of this match.

 **Rebecca – LP: 2000**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000**

Rebecca asked if Yugi was sure about this which I knew the boy was however Rebecca proceeded to talk to her teddy bear which was an rather unusual quirk she had, sometimes I wondered if she was related to Pegasus in a distant way since the two of them were completely wacky it made my head spin; Rebecca started off by summoning the Witch of the Black Forest in attack mode.

 **Witch of the Black Forest – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 4, ATK/1100, DEF/1200**

"Witch of the Black Forest…," Suguroku spoke. I was curious about his interest in this move but I had seen Rebecca duel several times before and I knew what her strategy was but I know that Yugi wouldn't want any help otherwise then he would have asked, Yugi stayed still analysing the move before bringing out Elf Swordsman.

 **Elf Swordsman – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

"Elf Swordsman attack!" Yugi commanded. The elven knight rushed forward and easily swung his sword through the weaker monster thus turning it into holographic shards as a shrill scream erupted from the witch and securing Yugi the early lead in the duel however Kylie's foot began to tap against the floor as her arm muscles bunched up from restraint.

 **Rebecca – LP: 2000 – LP: 1700**

"No. My Witch of the Black Forest was sent to the graveyard. What now?" Rebecca complained. At that moment she began to talk to the bear which 'offered' a suggestion being to use the Witch's Special Effect to bring a monster out into her hand so long as it had fifteen hundred defence points or less, at least I now knew why Kylie insisted on locking the bear away whenever Rebecca wanted to duel.

I saw Yugi's confused expression but he would just have to go along with it as Rebecca looked through her deck before selecting a card, after sliding it into her hand Rebecca shuffled her deck and then set it back down onto the podium but despite it being her turn she stood still almost as if she was trying to drag this out.

"Rebecca, it's your turn," Yugi reminded. This caused Rebecca to snap at him for distracting her although she swiftly got back to looking over her options before selecting one in what sounded like a disappointed tone and summoning the creature onto the field, it was Critter in attack mode which caused Anzu to questioned if she really was the American Champion.

 **Critter – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 3, ATK/1000 DEF/600**

Rebecca gushed over the creature calling it cute – Kuriboh was much cuter! – but Yugi swiftly ordered his Elf Swordsman to attack Critter, much to Rebecca's displeasure, thus destroying the blonde girl's second monster and depleting even more of her Life Points and Kylie's muscles tightened even more whilst I rubbed the bridge of my nose, both actions out of annoyance.

 **Rebecca – LP: 1700 – LP: 1300**

Rebecca complained about Critter being destroyed by Yugi's monster which annoyed Yugi as he cried out that technically Rebecca wasn't going to win anyway but this only caused Rebecca to claim that Yugi was taking advantage of her – that could be inferred in **so** many wrong ways – then the bear 'reminded' Rebecca about Critter's effect allowing her to choose a monster with fifteen hundred attack points or less and add it to her hand.

The other young spectators were completely confused by the way that Rebecca was acting with Honda asking if Rebecca was truly a genius whilst Jounouchi couldn't believe that Rebecca was the champion although I noted that Suguroku seemed to be contemplating something as he stared at Rebecca.

"Well she is, for all her eccentricity Rebecca is a good duelist… she just needs to start playing properly. I hate the warm up turns with her," Kylie admitted. The several times we'd dueled Rebecca and Kylie had always been annoyed by the childish attitude that the young girl always but on before getting serious, it did get to me sometimes as well.

"It's my turn now! Here goes!" Rebecca declared. Kylie finally seemed to unwind as both of us realised that Rebecca would finally stop fooling around and actually start dueling for real with Yugi noticing the sudden change in her demeanour as well. "Spell card, Tribute to the Dead, it can destroy a monster by sacrificing a card in my hand," Rebecca announced.

Rebecca then removed a card from her hand and sent it to the graveyard which caused bandages to appear underneath Elf Swordsman then wrapped around him, a hand appeared afterwards and seized the elven knight dragging him down into the graveyard.

Rebecca then proceeded to play a single face down monster in defence mode, Rebecca claimed that things would be getting interesting, the others also caught onto the sudden change in personality that Rebecca was displaying with Honda making sure that she was actually acting different until Anzu commented on her championship status despite her age and called out a warning to Yugi who would definitely need to heed those words.

"My turn, Demon's Summon, attack!" Yugi declared. He threw the card onto the podium thus allowing for it to be projected and lightning was immediately called forth and sent out towards the face down card however Rebecca called out that Yugi had fallen for it and flipped her card over revealing it was the Millennium Shield.

 **Demon's Summon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Fiend, Level: 6, ATK/2500, DEF/1200**

Since the Millennium Shield had three thousand defence point that meant Yugi's attack failed since it was stronger than Demon's Summon thus the difference in points would be deducted from Yugi's Life Points although his fiendish monster remained on the field.

 **Millennium Shield – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/0, DEF/3000**

 **Yugi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1500**

Rebecca cheered over her success whilst the others were very surprised and one of them commented she had been trained well and looked at Kylie who shook her head, even though Kylie referred to Rebecca as her protégé it was only recently that she'd been studying underneath us, a member of her family had trained her before us.

"Spell card, Ring of Magnetism," Rebecca announced. Since it was an Equip Spell this card caused four magnets to be projected around the Millennium Shield with two lines of electricity connecting all four of them in a ring shape around the Millennium Shield.

 **Millennium Shield – DEF/3000 – DEF/2500**

Naturally Yugi was confused as to why Rebecca would willingly weaken the overwhelming defensive power of the Millennium Shield which the blonde girl proceeded to tease him about, Yugi opted to skip this turn when Rebecca questioned what he would do.

"Really? Are you going to observe? Then I'll go, Cannon Soldier, attack mode," Rebecca announced. The machine creature appeared on the field which caused Suguroku to yell out a warning cry to his grandson causing the rest of us spectators to look at the older man in confusion.

"Cannon Soldier sacrifices a monster to attack the player," Suguroku explained. This cleared up the other three but not me and Kylie since we knew what Cannon Soldier was capable of but what confused us was how Suguroku knew this; Jounouchi didn't believe Rebecca's attack would be able to get passed the Demon's Summon.

 **Cannon Soldier – Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1300**

Yugi commanded Demon's Summon to attack Cannon Soldier however when the lightning attack neared the machine monster, it suddenly diverted and locked onto the Millennium Shield; the Ring of Magnetism may have lowered its' defence but that also ensured that none of Yugi's monster could attack any of Rebecca's monsters other than the Millennium Shield.

Rebecca drew a card from her deck and looked rather happy to see it however the blonde girl opted to summon out another Witch of the Black Forest although she promptly sacrificed her to activate Cannon Soldier's effect causing a blast to be sent flying towards our friend.

 **Yugi – LP: 1500 – LP: 1000**

The Witch's effect would allow Rebecca to select another monster from her deck with Jounouchi wondering if Rebecca really did have what it took to be the American Champion although Suguroku caught our attention when he claimed that Rebecca was 'just like him'.

"You'll know the pain in your heart from losing the Blue-Eyes," Rebecca declared. Yugi was confused by this whilst Suguroku began to ask Rebecca a question about who she was which caused me and Kylie to exchange looks of confusion. "You finally found out. Yes, my name is Rebecca Hopkins I'm Arthur Hopkins' granddaughter, the man you stole his cherished Blue-Eyes from," Rebecca accused.

The others couldn't believe that Suguroku would steal much less steal from a friend as they identified Arthur as being and I'd have to agree with them on that, if Suguroku had any hand in raising Yugi then there was no way he could be a thief with such a pure grandson however Rebecca refused to heed any of their words firmly set on the belief that her story was the true one.


	39. Chapter 39

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc1209 and Atarya QueenofEgypt for your reviews.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy. I dad to use the dubbed version**

Chapter 39: - The Bonds of Friendship

"Now listen to me Rebecca, I'm only going to say this one more time, my grandpa didn't steal the Blue-Eyes White Dragon," Yugi argued. However Rebecca – being the child she is – refused to listen to the boy's words and angrily protested in response to Yugi's words which caused the boy to place a hand to his head.

"Rebecca, there's a story that you need to hear, it's the story of how I meet your grandfather Arthur Hopkins and of the danger we faced together," Suguroku spoke up. However Rebecca refused to listen to this story since she believed that Suguroku would only be lying to her. "No it's true and be assured, it's one of the most frightening experiences I've had in my entire life," Suguroku insisted.

"Mister Muto, please tell us this story," I commented. The old man turned to look at me whilst Rebecca made a strangled sound obviously protesting to this but I shot the young girl a glare which made her quickly fall silent whilst Katherine nodded her agreement as it was best to hear a story from all angles before assuming anything.

"It happened years ago but it's an adventure I'd never forget. I had travelled to Egypt to participate in an archaeological dig, a brand new discovery had been made not far from the Great Pyramids. We all wondered what ancient secrets would soon be unearthed, the desert was hotter and drier than I expected so it was fortunate that I soon made a friend… or two I should say. An older man and young lady approached me and the man offered me his canteen of water, I guzzled it down a little too quickly but my new friend Professor Arthur Hopkins and his apprentice Chiharu were just amused at my enthusiasm," Suguroku began.

Suguroku continued on by explaining that Professor Hopkins was regarded by other archaeologists as a rather eccentric individual due to a theory he possessed that Duel Monsters were some how connected to Ancient Egypt, given what I had seen inside the spirit's Soul Room I was inclined to believe that theory now more than ever, this theory came from a recurring message in the hieroglyphs that Professor Hopkins had found, the message was duel.

However the exact meaning behind this word was unknown but by using it as a basis, Professor Hopkins came to conclude that these duels had high stakes attacked to them which the Ancient Egyptians had participated in and accompanying hieroglyphs took the appearance of Duel Monsters which was why Professor Hopkins came to the conclusion that he had.

Unfortunately when Professor Hopkins presented his theory to the rest of his colleagues, they proceeded to ridicule him claiming that this theory was simply wild fantasies and yet despite the world being set against him, Professor Hopkins decided to continue pursuing his theory with both Suguroku and Chiharu determined to help him.

"In time he found a link between the game and the Millennium Items," Suguroku revealed. Naturally Katherine's hand flew to her Gauntlet with a pale expression covering her face whilst Yugi asked what this link could possible be. "It's still very mysterious Yugi but from what we discovered it is connected to the fate of the Earth and a place known as the World of Darkness where the monsters dwelled and battles were fought," Suguroku explained.

At the mention of the World of Darkness I wondered if it was the Shadow Realm and I barely supressed the shiver that racked my body upon its' mention but what Professor Hopkins had found did align with what Shadi had told me and Yugi, Suguroku also stated that it was indeed Professor Hopkins who had given him the precious Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"Liar! You were never his friend! My grandpa would never have given away his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, you stole it! I know you did! Isn't that right Teddy?" Rebecca argued. I was half tempted to whip out my phone and call Arthur in order to get the story directly from him since I'm pretty sure Rebecca would only believe her beloved grandfather.

"Rebecca I didn't, I couldn't have because at that precise moment that ancient tomb caved in around us," Suguroku revealed. Yugi and his friends were shocked by this whilst Rebecca repeated the words since this had caught her interest. "Yes and we thought we were lost but miraculously we were unharmed although trapped in the tomb and Chiharu had been cut off from us," Suguroku continued.

"Do you know what happened to Chiharu?" Jounouchi asked. It was naturally for them to be curious however Suguroku's lips thinned as his eyes were cast down obviously trying to think about how to answer such a question which caused silence to stretch over us as we waited for the older man to speak but he didn't make any move to do such.

"Realising she was trapped, Chiharu began to look for a way out and along the way stumbled upon a gold and silver puzzle box," I spoke up. Everyone turned to look at me clearly surprised that it had been me who had answered instead of Suguroku. "Chiharu's surname is Hope, she's our mother," I explained. Suguroku blinked clearly surprised but he cleared his throat obviously intending to continue with his side of the tale.

"The two of us were completely sealed in and as time passed it seemed the ancient tomb would become ours as well, we consumed the little food we had left leaving only a canteen of water left, enough for one person. It was then that Arthur suggested a duel to distract ourselves and I made it so that the winner of our little duel would have the canteen of water and so our grim duel began with Arthur summoning the Witch of the Black Forest on his first turn," Suguroku explained.

My eyes widened as everyone caught onto the fact that Rebecca had played the same card for her first turn, Anzu insisted that Suguroku continued with his story and just as he was about to Rebecca cut him off once more still believing that every word Suguroku had spoken was a complete lie.

Yugi's friends defended the old man however Rebecca insisted that they continue with the duel but Jounouchi retaliated by insisting that we hear the rest of the story although Suguroku calmed the knuckle head down by insisting that we watch the duel continue with him and Yugi sharing a look as they nodded their heads.

Suguroku reminded us that it was Yugi's turn which caused the blonde girl to snap at him rather rudely which caused me to raise an eyebrow at this, clearly Rebecca was in need of another lesson about how to act like a lady once this duel was over.

"Well one thing's for certain, Rebecca may have learned dueling from Arthur but she never learned manners from him," Suguroku commented. A sigh escaped both me and Katherine as our heads simultaneously hung down, we agreed with Suguroku about that little detail.

"Or Kylie-san and Katherine-chan for that matter but maybe this'll teach her some," Yugi commented. He then recommenced the duel by summoning out his Catapult Turtle and since I had witnessed his duel against Mai I knew exactly where this route of play was going as Yugi explained the effect that Catapult Turtle had.

 **Catapult Turtle – Attribute: Water, Type: Aqua, Level: 5, ATK/1000, DEF/2000**

"What a joke, that won't help," Rebecca stated. However Yugi was quick to prove her wrong by activating his Brain Control Spell thus allowing the boy to take control of the Millennium Shield which caused Rebecca to start freaking out as the shield was set upon the launch pad of Catapult Turtle.

"Now I use Catapult Turtle to sacrifice your Millennium Shield," Yugi declared. The shield was sent flying into the sky before it was destroyed causing Rebecca to cry out. "My turn isn't done yet, Demon's Summon attack!" Yugi commanded. The lightning surged out and proceeded to blast Cannon Soldier into pieces which caused Rebecca to complain once again.

 **Rebecca – LP: 1300 – LP: 200**

Rebecca was deeply angered by this turn of events claiming she was still going to win – that manners lesson was definitely happening – however she soon regained her senses and proceeded to analyse her hand and graveyard before she pulled a card from her deck and looked at it.

"Great, fantastic, look what card we drew Teddy. Bravo, bravo Rebecca. V for victory, I play this Spell card Judgement Bomber," Rebecca declared. She imitated the bear speaking for a part of her rant but when Yugi asked about the Spell, it was clear he'd never seen this card before. "With Judgement Bomber I can discard five card from my hand and in exchange…" Rebecca trailed off. The other effect was soon displayed when a swirling vortex of purple energy appeared in the area and caused all of Yugi's monsters to be destroyed.

"And one more thing, now I summon my favourite monster," Rebecca announced. The look of glee on her face was enough to know that she was incredibly happy about being able to pull of this move and the monster she brought out onto the field was the Shadow Ghoul in attack mode.

 **Shadow Ghoul – Attribute: Dark, Type: Zombie, Level: 5, ATK/1600, DEF/1300**

"Up from the depths comes the creepy and oh so loveable Shadow Ghoul in attack mode and for every one of the lame old monsters in my graveyard this adorable fella gains an extra one hundred attack points," Rebecca revealed. That was Rebecca's whole strategy to discard her weaker monsters without hesitation in order to strengthen the Shadow Ghoul, this was another thing that Rebecca had failed to learn from me, Katherine or Arthur.

 **Shadow Ghoul – ATK/1600 – ATK/2700**

"What?! You mean you sacrificed eleven monsters to the graveyard just so you could use their energy to power up your Shadow Ghoul," Yugi questioned. I didn't blame how he must have viewed this act, after all Yugi valued each and every monster in his deck so naturally he would be aghast at someone carelessly tossing away so many card for the sake of one, Rebecca didn't understand this even as Yugi tried to teach her about it.

"Are you out of your mind? Dueling has nothing to do with respecting your monst-," Rebecca began to rant. Katherine acted fast and had everyone back away from me closer Yugi's side of the arena as I gritted my teeth before slamming my fist onto the side of the duel arena causing the blonde girl to stop talking as she, almost mechanically, turned to face me.

"Rebecca," I growled. Rebecca turned pale as I fixed her with an icy glare, the little girl should have learned by now that disrespect in my presence was something that I never tolerated no matter who it was from. "If you disrespect your monsters before me again I will reintroduce you to my Guardian," I ground out. Rebecca shivered before turning back to her podium still clearly frightened by my threat with damn good reason.

"Yugi, please teach my young apprentice that there's more to Duel Monsters than winning or power," I called. The boy nodded his head, I knew that Yugi would be able to succeed where the rest of us had failed after all he had managed to break through to Seto; Yugi proceeded to draw a card from his deck and simply slid a monster onto the field in face down defence position.

Since the Shadow Ghoul was so powerful it was best to wait until he pulled out a monster that was strong enough to over come it with brute force or gained the cards needed to make a combo move that would take down Rebecca's pet, Rebecca drew a card from her deck and claimed her lack of respect was made up for by talent as she revealed that she had the Spell card Defence Sealing.

The blonde girl then proceeded to play the Spell card thus activating it and forcing Yugi's face down card to be revealed and forced into attack mode thus showing us that the monster had been Yugi's faithful friend and loyal Spellcaster, the Black Magician.

 **Dark Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

Seeing that the monster would be easily taken down by her Shadow Ghoul, Rebecca ordered the decrepit creature to attack the spellcaster with green energy beams which easily turned the Black Magician into shards whilst dealing a blow to Yugi's Life Points.

 **Yugi – LP: 1000 – LP: 800**

"Mister Muto, Yugi's getting creamed. This couldn't have been how your duel with Professor Hopkins went," Honda argued. However Suguroku revealed that the duel we were seeing was the exact same duel that had been played within that collapsed tomb years ago but he also claimed that the outcome of the duel could surprise us.

"I play Sealing Swords of Light," Yugi announced. This snapped our attention back to the duel as the glowing swords rained down around Rebecca's side of the field thus entrapping her monsters for three turns and hopefully buying Yugi enough time to come up with a counter strategy for that damned Shadow Ghoul.

Rebecca found this rather irritating but the blonde girl opted to pass her turn without even drawing however her calmness unnerved the others but when you've been dueling for a long time it was pointless to get so worked up over simple setbacks as it was important for you to remain focused on any future moves you could make.

"I can use this card, Resurrection of the Dead," Yugi decided. He slid the Spell card onto the podium allowing it to activate thus letting Yugi bring back the Black Magician, yet once again Rebecca was completely unfazed by the moves that Yugi was making whilst she was trapped.

"I'll play my next card in defence mode and I'll tell him what it is because there's no way he can beat my genius brain, another Cannon Soldier," Rebecca bragged. The familiar monster appeared on the field but I knew she wouldn't use its' Special Effect yet since that would require her to get rid of Shadow Ghoul and there was no chance of Rebecca doing that just to get one shot at Yugi.

Unfortunately it was probably bait to make Yugi attack it and he really couldn't avoid this bait since allowing Cannon Soldier to stay on until the next turn was too risky so Yugi ordered his trusty magician to annihilate the mechanical beast thus removing its' threat but also empowering Shadow Ghoul even more.

 **Shadow Ghoul – ATK/2700 – ATK/2800**

"No matter what card Yugi draws next that Ghoul's more powerful than ever. Rebecca's strategy seems to be working, maybe she is a genius," Honda commented. Rebecca had passed her turn thus allowing Yugi to make his turn, the boy drew a card from the top of his deck and stared at it for a while.

"This is it isn't it? The last turn," Katherine spoke up. Everyone looked at my sister confused whilst Suguroku seemed surprised almost as if my sister's guess was correct, it hardly surprised me thought since Katherine sometimes had the uncanny ability to know when a duel was going to end.

Yugi then proceeded to lower the card back onto his deck and then settled his hand over the top of his deck just as Mai did thus indicating that Yugi was ready to surrender the duel to Rebecca thus causing all of Yugi's friends to have a look of shock grace their face before looking at Katherine then back at the duel whilst Suguroku had a knowing look on his face as my own eyes widened in surprise by this turn of events.

"I surrender Rebecca," Yugi announced. The other three proceeded to do anime falls upon hearing the vocalisation of his decision with Jounouchi claiming he couldn't believe it although on the other hand Rebecca was absolutely giddy over her victory and immediately came running over to the rest of us as the other three questioned Yugi's decision.

"I won now give me the Blue-Eyes," Rebecca demanded a hand out stretched. Suguroku nodded and reached into his trouser pockets pulling out the card revealing that it had been ripped clean in half having been Sellotaped back together in order to preserve it.

"So he's wasn't kidding when he claimed that Seto had ripped it in half," I commented. Rebecca looked at me then at the ripped up card as pure raging began burning in her eyes before she angrily began accusing Suguroku of doing the damage despite just having heard my statement, she was obviously still convinced that Suguroku was a thief.

"I treasure that card Rebecca, I would never destroy it," Suguroku protested. The honesty was thick within his voice but Rebecca was deaf to it still accusing him of lying and I was reaching the end of my patience with the little genius but I was saved from taking action by a dear friend stepping into the little feud.

"Rebecca behave yourself!" Arthur Hopkins commanded. He stepped into the room dressed in a clean cream suit with a white shirt, a red bow tie and a neatly kept helm of grey hair with kind and warm eyes; both Rebecca and Suguroku were surprised to see him there with Suguroku asking if it was him. "It's been a long time Suguroku. I do hope my precocious young granddaughter hasn't caused you too much trouble," Arthur commented.

"Professor, it was Mister Suguroku that won your duel and Yugi who won this one," Katherine spoke up. Arthur looked at my sister before letting out a warm and jolly laugh at her words although Rebecca protested to this claim still convinced that she had been the victor in the duel.

"As always Katherine you intuition is incredible," Arthur admitted. He walked over to the podium that Yugi had used and removed the top card from the deck then walked over to us. "Yugi, you're just like your grandfather, a generous soul and a talented duelist," Arthur commented. He then proceeded to show everyone the card that Yugi had drawn and I recognised it immediately.

It was the Spell card known as Soul Release which enabled the player to remove up to five card from either theirs' or their opponent's graveyard, this meant that if Yugi had played it he could have removed five monsters from Rebecca's grave thus dropping Shadow Ghoul's attack points to twenty-three hundred allowing Yugi to win the duel as Arthur explain which confused Rebecca so she demanded answers as to why Yugi surrendered.

"Yugi wanted to show you that there's much more to dueling than just winning and losing. He wanted you to see that the way of the cards' heart is through your own heart," Arthur explained. He then went on to add that this was the same outcome in Suguroku and Arthur's duel since Suguroku did it to save Arthur's life shortly before our mother and the workers broke into the tomb thus saving them both.

Arthur then added that whilst he did sacrifice the monsters to empower the Shadow Ghoul, he always respected those monsters, considering them every bit as important as the Shadow Ghoul itself with Arthur admitting his respect and gratitude to Suguroku was what encouraged him to give Suguroku the Blue-Eyes.

Rebecca was still angry about it being damaged and Suguroku apologised for this but Arthur didn't even care as he knew that Suguroku treasured that card because of the bond that it represented between the two men and it seemed that Rebecca finally understood our lesson as she shyly apologised to Yugi.

"Here take this," Yugi offered. As he did, the boy held out the Bonds of Friendship to Rebecca who accepted it and just like all those years ago, a duel and the exchange of a card would no doubt form the base for a lasting friendship between the two gifted individuals.


	40. Chapter 40

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc1209 and Atarya QueenofEgypt for your reviews.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.**

Chapter 40: - Legendary Heroes (I)

My flats clapped against the pavement road as I ran back towards the home me and Kylie were currently living in with my sister slightly ahead of me, both of us held up umbrellas to keep ourselves protected from the thick sheets of rain that were pounding down upon the ground.

A puff of air escaped my lungs being made visible by the cold atmosphere as I forced myself to move faster in order to keep up with my sister who had just turned the corner, sometimes I cursed my short stature since it put me at a really big disadvantage when chasing after people with longer legs and sometimes my sister seemed to be purely made of leg with how fast she could run.

I turned around the corner and came to a halt seeing my sister sat down on the ground, the bag of groceries she was holding on the floor with some falling out – thank goodness we didn't need any breakables – and a familiar mop of long black hair nestled against my sister who had her arms wrapped around him thus causing her umbrella to roll across the ground, allowing the rain to hammer onto them.

"Mokuba! What's wrong?" Kylie asked. Over the roaring winds, as I approached the two and began to gather up our supplies, I heard the faintest of sobbing emanating from the young boy which caused me to worry as I scooted closer to him where I slowly rubbed my hand up and down his back as my umbrella afforded us some small protection from the pounding droplets.

"It-It's Seto. Th-those cor-corpo-rate goo-goons tr-trapped hi-him," Mokuba sobbed. His words were enough for us to know Seto was in danger so Kylie helped Mokuba up as she kept a grip on his hands and began to run off so I quickly followed after her wondering where my sister was running off to.

Eventually we came to a stop outside of a small building probably fit for two or three people to live in, Kylie began to hammer on the door which showed just how urgently Kylie was feeling about this current situation, I looked about the building and saw a sign at the front of the building which read Kame Game Shop.

"Katherine-chan? Kylie-san? Mokuba-kun?" Yugi asked. I snapped my eyes back down to see the boy standing before us, he stepped to the side thus allowing the three of us to quickly duck inside as me and Kylie collapsed our umbrellas before turning to our amethyst eyed friend who was looking at us in confusion and surprise.

"Sorry for the interruption but we've got an emergency," Kylie admitted. Suguroku was also there, implying Yugi lived here despite the card shop interior – at least this explained where Yugi got all his cards – and he immediately ushered us into the back room providing towels to dry off and mugs of warm tea to give us back some warmth that the rain had stolen from us; I saw that Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu were also there.

"What's going on? Why are you guys soaking wet? And why is Mokuba with you?" Honda asked. Kylie shuffled the young ravenette to a chair where the two proceeded to seat themselves whilst I remained standing beside Yugi, Kylie gave Mokuba's shoulder a reassuring squeeze to speak and he raised his head to look at everyone standing around him.

Mokuba explained that when him and Seto had finally got back to Kaiba Corporation, the stern boy had immediately gone to his treacherous board of directors intent on banishing them but they informed Seto of the fact that they had created a Virtual Reality Adventure Game and used it to make a bet that if Seto won they left but if Seto lost they stayed; so the stupid genius decided it be a **brilliant** idea to plug himself into the pod and now he was stuck with his only way out being to beat the game.

A loud smacking sound occurred causing everyone to look at Kylie who had flung the heel of her hand straight into her forehead, the limb proceeded to slip down as her face became it twisted into a deep set scowl as she stood up and made a few steps forward before turning on Mokuba.

"Seto can be so stupid! That idiotic genius thinks he can't be played and look what happens! Now we got to go save his ass! Again! Why are we… whatever we are again?" Kylie ranted. Mokuba nodded his head as Kylie massaged her temples now doubt to combat an incoming headache due to the chaos that had been recently wrought upon our lives.

"Hold it Kylie-san, Mokuba-kun, even if we wanted to help, how can we? There was only one pod where Kaiba-kun went in," Yugi pointed out. Kylie, me and Mokuba shared a look before turning to Yugi who immediately noticed that the three of us were thinking.

"Mokuba… where are the other simulators?" I asked. Seto would never just have one of anything, heck sometimes prototypes turned up at Hope Industries on random occasions so it was almost a concrete fact that there would be more pods hidden away somewhere that would allow us to save the foolish brunette.

"They're in Kaiba Land. It has been my brother's dream to create Kaiba Land all over the world so that kids can enjoy themselves, he puts his heart into all of it," Mokuba admitted. Tears began to sting his eyes again whilst Jounouchi was shocked by this revelation of Seto's dream and then promised that they'd definitely stop the treacherous goons with Yugi also tacking on his agreement to his best friend's words.

With everyone on board to save Seto we proceeded to head out with umbrellas protecting us from the storm that still whirled around outside however we were undeterred by this fact as Mokuba guided towards the building where the simulators were being kept, upon arrival he began to prepare climbing over the gate in front.

"Hold it Mokuba, one that's far too dangerous for you to be doing, two if Seto finds out about this he'll have my head and I like my head where it is," Kylie insisted. The boy looked unsure but Kylie didn't allow him to argue with her decision as she collapsed her umbrella and handed it to Jounouchi then took a few steps back before running forward with all her strength.

At the gate Kylie jumped up and grabbed two of the poles with her hands whilst balancing her feet against these poles and she managed to clamber up them to the top and then flipped herself up, over then landed down on the other side with the utmost grace, she turned towards us and smiled quite widely.

"You'd have thought, grandma's gymnastic lessons actually came in handy," Kylie quipped. Without delay she proceeded to hack into the pad that locked the gate, to get in you needed in Kaiba Corporation key-card which we lacked although to get out it was a pass code, Kylie swiftly succeeded and thus the gate quickly swung open allowing the rest of us to get inside.

Mokuba took over the guiding once more and brought us to a secret area of the compound and inside of it, we abandoned our umbrellas at the entrance and ran further in until we came up to a closed door which Mokuba managed to open then turned on the lights allowing us to see the prototypes pods and a console to monitor the pods' functions and those who were inside the pods.

The others were in awe of the prototype pods but fortunately Mokuba and Kylie weren't distracted and ran over to the console where the young ravenette proceeded to bring the pods online with Mokuba claiming that they were exactly like the ones that Seto was currently trapped in although there was a slight problem with the number.

"One, two, three, four. So only four people can go? Me and Yugi," Jounouchi suggested. This immediately caused Honda to run over and put the blonde into a firm headlock casting his vote for him to be a third individual to go into the virtual reality.

"I'm going to go and Kylie you can't stop me!" Mokuba insisted. My sister was still looking over the console before her name caused her to raise her head and look straight at Mokuba who had a determined expression firmly etched onto his face showing that his words were more than words since he was completely determined to save his brother.

"I'm not opposed to this, Seto will receive you better than others and I'll remain here to operate the pods. We'll obviously need duelists so Yugi, Jounouchi and Katherine must go with you. Jounouchi, if anything happens to these two I'll have your head," Kylie spoke up whilst gesturing to me and Mokuba. Mokuba was shocked, whilst Jounouchi seemed frightened although asked about Yugi's responsibility and the other two brunettes didn't seem happy but they clearly understood since no one argued.

Those chosen to enter the virtual reality climbed into the pods, once activated the lid closed onto pod and was latched whilst a screen helmet surrounded my head with all of our decks – Mokuba borrowing Seto's – had been inserted into the deck reading slot.

"Virtual Upload… now," Kylie announced. The gliding of a console handle was heard before my eyes were encompassed by a dark tunnel with spots of green light dotted about around the tunnel, I could barely feel the transfer of my mind into the virtual reality setting.

When the tunnel faded I saw that I had been dropped into a forested area, connected to my left wrist was a deck holder that came with Seto's Duel Disc however the Life Point counter that was present made me kind of nervous, the others were also with me so we set off out of the forest with Yugi wondering what rules we had to follow in this world and if it was connected to Duel Monsters.

At the edge of the forest we found a cliff and beyond the cliff lay a graveyard which caused me to take a firm hold on Yugi's arm as I cowered behind him staring down at the graveyard with fear.

"Graveyards always mean zombies, I hate zombies," I complained. Yugi twisted around to face me and he gently patted the top of my head before removing my hands although he allowed one of my hands to remain intertwined with one of his own.

"It's ok Katherine, we're here so the zombies won't get you," Yugi reassured. Jounouchi called out that he had found a road down and so we carefully walked down the path until we reached the graveyard causing a shiver to travel down my spine as we walked over the dead earth whilst a thick layer of fog hung over us, the details were so immense it was hard to believe this was only virtual.

Suddenly the ground near us began to crack and rose up slightly which made all of us freeze up as I clung even tighter to poor Yugi's hand, suddenly the ground burst up allowing a green skinned warrior zombie to emerge making me and Jounouchi scream slightly whilst Mokuba jumped backwards as two more zombies chose to join the warrior, one a dragon and the other a clown; Yugi was the only one that remained calm.

 **Armoured Warrior Zombie – Attribute: Dark, Type: Zombie, Level: ?, ATK/1500, DEF/0**

 **Murder Circus Zombie – Attribute: Dark, Type: Zombie, Level: ?, ATK/1350, DEF/0**

 **Dragon Zombie – Attribute: Dark, Type: Zombie, Level: ?, ATK/1600, DEF/0**

"Murder Circus Zombie, Armoured Warrior Zombie, Dragon Zombie. Duel Monsters, huh?" Jounouchi questioned. I don't see how them just being Duel Monsters made them any less scary and if we couldn't summon then running was the best option we had at the moment.

Fortunately Mokuba swiftly came to our rescue by showing us how to summon which included drawing a card and jumping back to strike a pose with the card held above one's head whilst declaring the monster's name with Mokuba summoning out Rude Kaiser.

 **Rude Kaiser – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast-Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

Seeing what we had to do I pulled my hands away from Yugi's and settled it on top of the deck with Yugi doing the same and so the both of us proceeded to jump back landing beside Mokuba and performed the same summoning with Yugi bringing out Black Magician whilst I selected to bring forth Hera.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

 **Queen of Marriage, Hera – Attribute: Light, Type: Fairy, Level: 5, ATK/1900, DEF/2500**

All three monsters decided on a target and promptly destroyed it however due to their undead nature the zombies were quick to revive themselves but Jounouchi was just as quick to react as he proceeded to draw his own card and summon it out whilst announcing that it was the Flame Swordsman.

 **Flame Swordsman – Attribute: Fire, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

The warrior charged forward with his sword becoming enwreathed in flames at the same time, however my eyes widened as I saw that the attack points of the zombies proceeded to rise after their resurrection, Yugi had seen the same thing and called out to Jounouchi that he should stop his attack.

 **Armoured Warrior Zombie – ATK/1500 – ATK/1650**

 **Murder Circus Zombie – ATK/1350 – ATK/1450**

 **Dragon Zombie – ATK/1600 – ATK/1760**

However Jounouchi didn't register this in time as his warrior destroyed the Dragon Zombie, sadly once more it proceeded to revive itself and its' attack power increased once again making it stronger than the warrior, the zombie didn't waste any time in launching itself at Flame Swordsman thus destroying the warrior and damaging Jounouchi's Life Points as well.

 **Dragon Zombie – ATK/1760 – ATK/1920**

 **Jounouchi – LP : 2000 – LP: 1820**

Jounouchi finally caught onto our predicament although Yugi reminded him of how the blonde was able to defeat these monsters the last time that he faced them so Jounouchi proceeded to activate the Spell card of Shield in the Righ Hand and Sword in the Left Hand thus switching our opponents' attack and defence points and providing us with the chance to defeat them.

 **Armoured Warrior Zombie – ATK/1650 – ATK/0, DEF/0 – DEF/1650**

 **Murder Circus Zombie – ATK/1450 – ATK/0, DEF/0 – DEF/1450**

 **Dragon Zombie – ATK/1920 – ATK/0, DEF/0 – DEF/1920**

Jounouchi handed over the opportunity to Yugi so the boy proceeded to have his trusted magician strike down all three of the zombies thus setting us free of those disgusting creatures and the boys proceeded to cheer about this whilst I shivered violently, suddenly three Duel Monsters cards appeared before us spinning in place with the number five and coins where the artwork was located.

"Seems we got some gold," Mokuba acknowledged. Yugi guessed that it was probably this world's version of currency, quite a common aspect in RPG games, requiring the usage of coins to better your arsenal; on the other hand Jounouchi was more concerned with the fact that his Life Points hadn't regenerated which meant we had to be careful when entering any more battles.

"As great as this new information is… can we leave this spooky graveyard now?" I asked. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms due to the chilling feeling that surrounded me, the other three seemed to share my sentiments as we swiftly proceeded to look for a way out.

Whilst we looked Jounouchi then called us over to a gravestone and behind it was a Key Mace who stared back at us whilst Jounouchi assumed that it was meant to help us, it then proceeded to fly off with only faint particles of glowing dust falling down behind it; the four of us proceeded to follow after Key Mace as a soft laughter escaped from the small fairy.

Our chase led us right out of the creepy graveyard onto the edge of a cliff yet the Key Mace had managed to disappear on us but it had successfully led us to an entire town that sat just below the cliff edge and beyond that lay a large expanse of desert so we headed down and began to explore the town.

As we did, we discovered a stand selling Duel Monsters cards which required coins to buy them Jounouchi wanted to buy them but Mokuba cut across by informing us that the price was far too high and quickly got us back on track for the search or Seto, we split to cover more ground and spoke to every virtual person that we came across.

Once done with the questioning we were to meet back at the water fountain, as I wrapped up my conversation with a young girl I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my face as I ran back to the three boys who looked to be unsettled indicating that they didn't know where Seto was.

"Guys, I think I know where Seto is. You see that mountain?" I called out. The three boys turned to face me as I pointed to the mountain that rested across the desert with a snow capped peak stretching into the sky. "Apparently this morning the villagers saw someone they didn't recognise being taken into the Cave of Death located within the mountains but we need to cross the desert to reach it," I explained.

"Great… so where's our ride?" Jounouchi asked. I didn't have an answer for that and even if I did there wasn't a chance for me to say it as Mokuba immediately took off across the sandy expanse so the three of us rushed to catch up to the young boy so that he wouldn't get hurt or lost within the desert and then we had both Kaiba brothers to find.

However as we continued pushing onwards the wind began to blow harder and harder whipping up a sand storm to push us back however Mokuba was determined to continue pushing forward but as we did a massive sand twister appeared before us and the next thing I knew someone was shaking me awake as my mouth was filled with sand.

Lurching upright I hacked out the offensive element violently and then scrubbed my tongue with the sleeve of my cardigan, turning back I saw Mokuba knelt down beside where I was led and behind him was Jounouchi awakening Yugi from the slumber that damned twister had thrown us into and behind us all was the town that we had set out from.

"You can't cross the desert like **that** ," A male voice called. We turned back to see an old man sat on the front patio of a house with him letting out a few laughs, but realising he had information we went over to him with Jounouchi demanding answers. "If you plan on crossing the desert, you need the Cluck card," The man explained.

All of us immediately clocked on that he meant the Cluck monster card but all the old man ended up doing was repeating the exact same words he had said before about the Cluck which annoyed Jounouchi however I turned my attention to Mokuba who had a saddened look on his face so I walked over to the ravenette.

"Mokuba don't worry, we'll find the Cluck card," I promised. The three looked at me in surprise but then they nodded so we ran back into the town and began to search every inch in order to find anything about the Cluck card but I found nothing, fortunately Yugi was far more successful as he gathered all of us up and brought us over to his discovery.

As it turned out Yugi's discovery was a board that displayed the Cluck we were searching for and it was the prize if someone successfully defeated town's champion, also on the board was a woman with long blonde hair in a white corset top, a short purple skirt and purple knee-high boots with a long red cape trailing behind her, a whip was in hand whilst a butterfly shaped mask covered her entire face except her mouth and her sharp purple eyes.

The woman seemed strangely familiar to me but the mask prevented me from identifying her, we headed off to the coliseum and the master of it didn't seemed convinced but agreed to let one of us participate… until our Life points reached zero which was game over quite literally; despite the fact that his Life Points were lower Jounouchi offered himself as the fighter and none of us could persuade him to reconsider so we left him to get changed and took our place within the crowd.

Jounouchi had been forced to wear a green cap with a pig mask covering his whole head and this didn't earn him any favours with the crowd as they whole heartedly believed that the champion would be able to easily defeat Jounouchi, I hoped this champion wasn't that powerful to begin with.

"Now then, behold our invincible Champ! Madam Butterfly, gecko!" The coliseum owner declared. As he did people walked in carrying a throne on a pedestal and sat upon it was the woman from the board meaning that she had to be the champion.

"Cross your fingers guys," I muttered. Mokuba and Yugi nodded as the woman launched herself off of the throne and up into the sky.


	41. Chapter 41

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc1209 and Lucinda321 for your reviews.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.**

Chapter 41: - Legendary Heroes (II)

"I'll show you just how foolish it was of you to challenge me, boy!" Madam Butterfly taunted as she landed. A card was already in her hands and I knew that Jounouchi would be annoyed with the woman's words yet there was something about this woman that was familiar and it niggled in the back of my mind.

"Shut up! I'll show you up for the fraud champion you really are!" Jounouchi snapped. With that the duel began with Jounouchi drawing out his own card and proceeded to summon it out revealing that it was his Flame Swordsman and that we didn't need to use that pose to actually summon them out, thank goodness since it was kind of ridiculous.

 **Flame Swordsman – Attribute: Fire, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1600**

However Madam Butterfly wasn't fazed by this and instead proceeded to summon out her own monster revealing that it was Harpie Lady which caused me to raise an eyebrow since this seemed like an unusual move as Harpie Lady was much weaker than the Swordsman.

 **Harpie Lady – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400**

The Swordsman charged forward however Madam Butterfly held up a card and then flipped it around to reveal it was Silver-Screen Mirror Wall thus causing Flame Swordsman's attack to smash right into it, reflecting the attack and lowering its' attack points as a result.

 **Flame Swordsman – ATK/1800 – ATK/900**

"Does that look familiar to you Yugi?" I asked. The boy nodded his head, Mai's strategy against his Other Side, we turned back to the duel as Madam Butterfly laughed a very familiar laugh whilst making another taunt. "Ok, yeah that's Mai," I stated. Only one person had that laugh and could make Jounouchi as annoyed as I though he probably was, sadly if I was right then Mai had just activated Rose Whip increasing Harpie Lady's attack points.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1300 – ATK/1600, DEF/1400 – DEF/1700**

The barbed whip when sailing towards Flame Swordsman but Jounouchi swiftly removed his mask causing Mai to call off her attack as she removed her own mask, seeing our friend in this virtual world was quite a surprise but it didn't stop us from running over to her within the fighting arena as the blonde woman realised we were here as well and she asked why we were here.

We explained the situation to the blonde woman but at that exact moment the crowd began to yell at us to get back to the fight making it look like we were in a tight spot but not only did Mai agree to help us but she also secured the Cluck card for us.

Mai did this by having Harpie Rose Whip it over to her master and that was all the prompting we needed to begin running right away from the coliseum especially since the crowd was chasing after us but I saw that they would catch us before we reached the desert.

"I got this, Pitfall!" I cried. Activating the trap card causing a massive hole to form between us and the townspeople with their immediate ways to us having been cut off and some even fell down into it. "Let's move before they find away around!" I insisted. We swiftly resumed our run and came to the edge of the desert.

Mai activated the Cluck card summoning out five chicken like creatures for each of us so we swiftly mounted them and began to ride off into the desert with the travel being much easier this time around, as we rode onwards Mai admitted that she had been invited to play some new games but then realised she couldn't escape the world that probably meant that Mai had been used as a guinea pig by the treacherous board in order to ensure everything would go as planned when they decided to trap Seto in this virtual world.

Sadly a geyser of sand erupted as the ground began to crumble beneath the sand as vines shot out of the crevice before the rest of the monster emerged from within revealing that it was a Sand Stone monster and clearly another obstacle that had been placed into the game.

 **Sand Stone – Attribute: Earth, Type: Rock, Level: 5, ATK/1300, DEF/1600**

"We don't have time for this! Lightning Vortex!" I yelled as I activated the Spell. In accordance with my declaration a swirling storm of lightning trapped the Sand Stone and began to lash out repeatedly striking into the monster barring our path before it was finally destroyed. "Right, let's go," I calmly stated.

"Did someone replace Katherine-chan with Kylie-san?" Mai asked. I looked over at them seeing that Mai and Jounouchi were completely dumbstruck whilst Yugi had a soft smile on his face although Mokuba shook his head at the question with his face taking a strained look.

"No that's Katherine, we need to keep moving," Mokuba responded. We all then proceeded to realise that the sand clouds had faded away revealing the temple that we'd been searching for which had clearly been hidden by the raging storm, so we encouraged our Clucks to carry us the last few leagues to the temple and once there Mokuba barely allowed the Cluck to brake before jumping off of his mount.

The temple was beautiful and massive but that didn't pause any of us from throwing ourselves from our own mounts as we chased after the young boy calling out for him to wait up for us but I knew that it was useless as Mokuba was so determined to save Seto that he was blind to nearly everything else.

Inside of the temple was much different since it was dark, cramped and filled with bats but so long as there were no zombies I'd be fine, also we successfully caught up to Mokuba as we carefully made our way through the dark cavern but I couldn't use my magic without revealing that secret to someone other than Yugi so I didn't try and provide us with light.

Eventually we came to a set of wooden double doors with Jounouchi pushing them open only to reveal a large room containing a labyrinth with Jounouchi immediately recognising the field from the duel against the Labyrinth Brothers, almost as if to mock us the doors we had just entered through slammed shut behind us just like in that duel with Mai beginning to freak out.

"I see! This world seems to be modelled on various duels from the Duelist Kingdom, if that's the case, there's got to be an exit around here," Yugi theorised. Suddenly – as if to give us more incentive to go into the maze – a female scream shot into the air from within the maze and this caused Jounouchi to barge passed the rest of us straight into the maze.

Mai complained about this, even mentioning her own good looks, which made me think that she might be jealous of Jounouchi's reaction, however before we could make any start into the labyrinth a rumbling occurred behind us causing our heads to snap around as the wall broke apart and a Labyrinth Tank drove into the room.

 **Demonic Labyrinth Tank – Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2400**

With the massive machine poised before us and no escape to the sides, it was clear that our only escape route was into the maze so the four of us turned and ran which allowed us to catch up to Jounouchu at a T section who was looking for the source of the voice so we called out to him causing him to look back and see the machine chasing us.

All of us turned to the left but had to grind to a halt as a second Labyrinth Tank appeared before us at the end of the corridor we had chosen so all of us promptly spun around hoping to take the right path but once more a Labyrinth Tank appeared at the end of that corridor which meant that we were completely cornered as the three Tanks approached us with whirling drills.

"Magical Silk Hats," Yugi declared. Immediately the magical protection surrounded us and I heard the firing of lasers yet the hat surrounding us wasn't destroyed nor were we injured meaning our hat had not been targeted so we lifted the hat slightly and shuffled forward before the protective object was completely removed from us.

The rumbling of the tanks made it clear they were on the move again however the Key Mace we had spotted in the graveyard appeared before us and it beckoned us to follow after it resulting in us running straight into a sight that caused me to stumble as I rapidly rubbed at my eyes in order to ensure I was seeing what I thought I did.

Key Mace had stopped before an individual wearing a beautiful and elegant dress with a tiara set into the thick hair that the person possessed but apart from that this person looked like a clone of Mokuba and everyone seemed to see the same thing from the shocked look on their faces with them even mistaking it for Mokuba before he reminded them of where he was standing.

"So the person screaming before was you?" Mokuba asked as he stepped forward. It was incredibly strange to see the two of them like this even if we were inside of a video game, I was glad that Mokuba at least had enough calmness in him to speak since the rest of us were so surprised by this unexpected twist that our voices had fled.

"A-and you guys are?" The clone asked. The clone's voice was soft and high thus indicating that the individual before us was a girl, Jounouchi approached the girl and asked if she could get us out of the labyrinth. "I am sorry. But Iru can guide us," The girl admitted. Clearly Key Mace was Iru as the little fairy flew through the labyrinth guiding us out of the twisted maze however once more our path was blocked, this time by Gate Guardian.

 **Gate Guardian – Attribute: Dark, Type: Warrior, Level: 11, ATK/3750, DEF/3400**

Fortunately their past experience against this typically overwhelming monster was truly helpful in this regard as Yugi and Jounouchi were swift to summon out the monster that had defeated this creature the last time that they face it, Black Demon's Dragon.

 **Black Demon's Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon/Fusion, Level: 9, ATK/3200, DEF/2500**

Unfortunately this time around the Gate Guardian was one single monster instead of three separate ones due to some new regulations that had come out recently and had clearly been inputted into the game, that meant that this time around Gate Guardian was still stronger that Black Demon's Dragon which Mai also pointed out to the boys.

"We're not done yet, Claws of the Dark Dragon Tribe. It's attack goes up by six hundred points," Jounouchi revealed. The Equip Spell caused light to appear around the claws of Black Demon's and then the light faded revealing a pair of shiny, sharp claws had been added to the boys' monster.

 **Black Demon's Dragon – ATK/3200 – ATK/3800**

With this new attack strength it was easy for Black Demon's to overcome Gate Guardian with the female Mokuba thanking us and asked how she could repay us however before we could make another step towards the exit voices that were crying out Mary-sama echoed towards us as red lights appeared within the cavern before us.

From within came a woman dressed like a house maid or something like that, behind her was a group of men all dressed in identical armour with all of them holding torches thus the source of the lights and it was clear that the female Mokuba knew them meaning she had to be the Mary they were looking for and then they noticed us so the female Mokuba turned around to look at us.

"These people saved my life," She admitted. This caused a slight blush to appear on my face whilst the rest of them proceeded to have wide grins plastered on their faces. "I'd like to invite you all to the castle as thanks for saving me," She spoke.

"Castle, does that mean you're royalty?" I asked. The female Mokuba nodded her head and finally introduced herself as Queen Mary of Gouland so we introduced ourselves to her and left the labyrinth place behind us whilst being loaded into a carriage separate from Mary.

We made a little small talk with Jounouchi teasing Mokuba about Mary's resemblance to him which annoyed the youngest member of our group but our attention was distracted by the appearance of the castle where we were heading with Mokuba voicing his desire that the people here could help us find out where Seto was.

As we walked into the castle, Iru settled herself within the blonde locks of Yugi's hair causing me to laugh lightly whilst Mary claimed that Iru had taken a liking to him, all of us proceeded to take a seat at a table with food being brought out to us although I made sure to keep my arms and fingers in a short area due to how fast the blonde boy of our group was devouring his own food whilst Mai chastised him before the boy began to choke causing her to worry until he recovered.

"By the way, my lady, did you hear any news about my big brother by any chance?" Mokuba asked. This caused a sad expression to appear on the gentle queen as she explained that every year at this time in another kingdom and Gouland, sacrifices were forced to be given up as offerings in order to pacify the Five God Dragon so that it wouldn't destroy the land with the other kingdom having given up a prince from a foreign land which I'm sure had to be Seto with Mokuba asking where he was.

"I'm certain he is being held in the Dark Castle in the Sky," Mary revealed. This instantly reminded me of the Castle of Concealing Darkness with Yugi asking where it was. "Please look at that painting. This is a legend from a thousand years ago, this is an ancient ship used to get to the Dark Castle of the Sky. However, we are unsure where to find this legendary artefact," Mary explained.

The painting depicted a bird like thing flying through the sky split between day and night; Mai stated we could fly on our monsters to the castle but Mary rebuked this by stating that a magical barrier prevented Duel Monsters from reaching it which made Mokuba depressed although Mai nearly blew everything by reminding Mokuba this was only a game confusing Mary and her maid.

"Queen Mary, has the offering for your kingdom been chosen?" I asked. My question had a double reason, one was to distract the two NPCs from Mai's trip up and the other was to, hopefully, find a way to get us inside that castle but this caused a pained expression to appear on both of the women's face.

"Yes, it is me," Mary revealed. That threw my plan straight out the window whilst the other four were shocked by the queen's words, it was a noble thing to do all the same. "But I believe you people may be able to save this land, the legend speaks of a group of legendary heroes that come to fight the dragon. It states 'When the strongest dragon teams up, the Evil God will be destroyed.'," Mary foretold.

Yugi asked if that was why Mary had been in the labyrinth and Mai questioned if she believed we were the prophesied heroes, the queen firmly stated her belief which caused Jounouchi to cheer although Mai lambasted him for his one track mind but the blonde boy soon showed that he did understand the situation by informing us that if we didn't defeat the Five God Dragon when we couldn't save Seto and the rest of us nodded our heads in agreement so Mary decided to adorn us in the outfits worn by legendary heroes.

We were taking to changing rooms and we were given outfits with Mai deeply liking hers which made her look like a warrior goddess with the armour plating and subtle feminine embellishments whilst Yugi thought he was silly despite the fact that he reminded me of the heroes from the fantasy novels I loved so much.

"If anyone looks silly, it's me," I stated. I wore a medieval style dress fit for a princess, a silken blue-purple fabric with long sleeves – covering up my Gauntlet – with the neck exposing my collar bone and the bottom ending at my ankles with a hood hanging down the back, a golden belt around my waist, calf high purple boots on my feet. "I look ridiculous," I muttered.

"Actually that dress was worn by a might sorceress long ago and it is enchanted to near tear or age, it can withstand the sharpest of tools and the fiercest of fires," Mary's maid spoke up. I looked at the sleeves of the dress finding it difficult to believe so I turned away and summoned a small spark of lightning watching as it struck the dress only to be absorbed as the sleeve rippled with light.

"You look fine Katherine," Mai reassured. Despite having seen that the dress would withstand damage that didn't help the fact that I still felt like I was out of place with the other two wearing armour and I doubted that the other two boys would look much different to Yugi.

"Katherine-chan, you look beautiful," Yugi spoke up. I looked at the boy who had a gentle smile on his face and I felt a blush run across my face whilst Mai stared a Yugi in shock before a sly smile creeped its' way across her face however we were all distracted by some very loud complaints courtesy of Jounouchi.

We eventually managed to get him to come out despite protests with it being revealed that he was dressed more like a caveman than anything else, suddenly lightning flashed across the sky as it swiftly darkened implying trouble was coming so we stepped out onto the ramparts with some knights, Mokuba and Mary joining us as I spotted the Castle of Concealing Darkness in the sky.

To make things worse swarms of Duel Monsters descended from the clouds surrounding the castle in a wide ring and all of their attention was focused on the spire of Mary's castle that we were stood on meaning that they were completely focused on getting the sacrifice they came for.

Mai summoned out a monster to deal with the monsters and she successfully got rid of two of them however the sheer mass of monsters was too much for only five – let alone one – Duel Monsters to deal with so Yugi had Mai pull her monster back which she complied with.

"I've got no choice but to battle them all! I activate Black Hole! Destroy all the monsters!" Yugi announced. He held the card up but I saw something flying towards him so I tackled the boy to the ground stopping the magic from working and sending the card from his grasp as the weapon glanced across the back of my dress yet no injury was dealt to my body.

"Sorry," I squeaked. I sat up and pulled the boy with me as we saw that a kunai had impaled Yugi's card thus rendering it useless and to make things worse Mary was surrounded by a net and yanked into the air so Jounouchi immediately unleashed Axe Raider accompanied by Chain Attached Boomerang.

 **Axe Raider – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1700, DEF/1150**

 **Axe Raider – ATK/1700 – ATK/2200**

The monster that had netted Mary was destroyed but a winged monster grabbed the net and proceeded to fly off towards the Castle of Concealing Darkness causing all of us to cry out the captured girl's name as the storm clouds faded away, the Five God Dragon would soon be released and we'd lose Seto once he was sacrificed along with Mary.

"No way, Mokuba-sama," Mary's voice came. Yet when I looked at its' source it was coming from who I had assumed was Mokuba which shocked all of us but that meant the person they had captured was Mokuba. "It was Mokuba-sama. Mokuba-sama, it is my fault if I had been taken as the sacrifice as planned… I beg of you! Please save Mokuba-sama," Mary wailed.

I couldn't blame the poor queen for being terrified about the prospect of being sacrifice just to bring pacify some demonic beast despite her volunteering to be sacrificed herself; now we just had to find some way to reach the Castle with Yugi approaching the edge of the ramparts vocalising that question.

I walked over to him and placed my hands against the armour he wore seeing that he was depressed about the loss of Mokuba however my gaze was drawn downwards so I drew Yugi's attention to it and he immediately called to the others, everyone came over and saw that within the ruins was a shape similar to the painting of the flying machine.

Realising this Mary immediately had her people begin scouring Gouland for any clue about how to resurrect the flying machine but sadly they were unable to find any such thing which angered Jounouchi and he considered this whole thing a sick game which he wasn't completely wrong about but suddenly Yugi called out to Mary asking how long ago the legend took place revealing it had happened one thousand years ago.

Following Yugi's lead we headed down to the location with Jounouchi stating that since the machine was so old there couldn't be any chance of it actually flying but Yugi claimed we had to undo the damage by restoring the machine to its' former glory causing us to look at him.

"To do that we'd need something that controls the flow… of… time," I stated. However by the end I realised what Yugi was getting at causing me to look at Jounouchi who became unnerved as Mai also caught on to what Yugi was getting at causing her to look at him as well. "Jounouchi, we need your Time Magician," I explained. Jounouchi finally realised what we meant but he did point out the risk.

"We have to save Kaiba-kun and Mokuba-kun by any means necessary," Yugi insisted. It was surprising that Yugi would be willing to risk so much for Seto after what he did but it also made sense since Yugi was such a kind hearted person, Jounouchi was convinced as he activated Time Magician and we watched as the arrow spun around before landing on the time machine.

As the magic activated it cause the degraded buildings to be repaired and we all crouched down to avoid being hit by flying debris, once over we saw that the beautiful ruins had been repaired to their former glory and after a few moments of silence, the ruins started to shake whilst cracks appeared in the outline of the flying machine which proceeded to rise out of the ground sending us up with it.


	42. Chapter 42

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me.**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.**

Chapter 42: - Legendary Heroes (III)

As the rocks beneath our feet crumbled away none of us fell through a hole and instead our feet hit the ground hard causing us to fall and I felt the metallic deck of the flying machine as it continued to rise into the sky, upon realising it had worked Mai practically tackled Jounouchi in a hug as the cheers of Gouland's people came from below the flying machine causing us to look over the edge and saw everyone cheering us on from the ground.

However we weren't going alone as Iru flew up towards us and Yugi asked if she wanted to tag along with us which the little fairy agreed with so we turned our attention to the floating mass that indicated the Castle of Concealing Darkness and its' monstrous army.

Jounouchi ran towards the helm and took the steering wheel with us standing beside him as Jounouchi continued piloting the air ship with it rising into the sky putting us through deep grey clouds and then above them giving us a direct view of the floating prison.

The flying machine proceeded to fly further into the sky eventually pushing beyond the lower cloudbank putting us more in line with the Castle of Concealing Darkness thus allowing us to see the monster army leering down on us before diving down towards us clearly ready to tear us to pieces before we had a chance to land.

Given that a fight was coming straight for us, we all drew a card and proceeded to summon out monsters to protect us from danger even though the swarm was massive in size, Yugi summoned out Black Magician, I brought out Athena, Jounouchi opted to use Magic Knight Gilitia and Mai brought out Harpie Lady with Rose Whip.

 **Black Magician – Attribute: Dark, Type: Spellcaster, Level: 7, ATK/2500, DEF/2100**

 **Maiden of Wisdom, Athena – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 8, ATK/2800, DEF/2700**

 **Magic Knight Gilitia – Attribute: Light, Type: Warrior, Level: 5, ATK/1850, DEF/1500**

 **Harpie Lady – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400**

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1300 – ATK/1600, DEF/1400 – DEF/1700**

Our monsters proceeded to defend us from the swarm however explosions suddenly went off from beneath the machine causing us to be sent stumbling about, this caused Athena to dash over towards me and wrapped me within her protective embrace but that didn't stop me from seeing a monster diving straight towards Yugi.

"Black Magician, help Yugi!" I called. The Spellcaster turned around but he wasn't capable of getting down towards Yugi in time due to him being surrounded by monsters although someone did leap to Yugi's defence in the form of Iru despite the fact that a Key Mace was grossly overpowered by the descending monster.

Iru was swept to the sides by the monster's claws but this did allow Black Magician to break free and defend his master from any further harm, however upon seeing how much danger we were in I activated Sealing Swords of Light thus putting up a protective barrier around the flying machine whilst Yugi walked over to Iru and lifted the weakened fairy into his hands however she turned into fairy dust moments later.

Tears that had welled within Yugi's eyes sprung forth as his hands clenched into tight fists then the overwhelming pressure of magic swept over us as the Puzzle activated shrouding Yugi in a light before fading away revealing that Other Yugi had finally decided to step in.

The spirit swore that he would never forgive Kaiba Corporation's traitorous board of directors for the pain they'd caysed, with that we continued our advance on the castle and soon impacted against the barrier that protected the castle with the prow of the boat pushing against the barrier causing lightning to spark out yet this barrier could do nothing against the air ship as it managed to carve its' way through the barrier.

Jounouchi began to celebrate too early for my liking at it was soon proven when a stream of fire shot out towards us and if not for Other Yugi's early warning I had a feeling this air ship wouldn't have been flying for much longer, Jounouchi had managed to steer the air ship away but the wing was still hit, I look up to see a dragon made of fire had appeared from out of the hole.

"A Dark Blaze Dragon," I realised. Fortunately Mai had this particular monster covered as she swiftly activated her Cyber Bondage to increase Harpie Lady's attack points even more and sent her in to deal with the damned dragon that blew out our wing.

 **Harpie Lady – ATK/1600 – ATK/2100, DEF/1700 – DEF/2200**

Harpie Lady successfully destroyed the creature but since the airship's wing had been hit that meant we were in grave danger of plummeting out of the sky so I immediately drew a card and summoned out Nike before turning to the others.

 **Bird of Victory, Nike – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged-Beast, Level: 2, ATK/1000, DEF/700**

"Everyone on the bird!" I ordered. No one argued or paused and we all climbed onto the eagle who swiftly beat her wings and ascended into the sky just as small explosions began to ring out across the air ship which soon began to fall out of the sky as the fire proceeded to consume it.

Thankfully Mai had activated Kaleidoscope thus bringing out Harpie Lady Sisters who acted as carriers for the other three monsters allowing them to tail after us so I urged Nike to fly towards the castle as I kept an eye out for any sign of an attack.

After landing we proceeded to run further into the castle hoping to find Seto and Mokuba as soon as possible although at one point we somehow stumbled into a forest with Jounouchi claiming that he had never expected the castle to look the way that we had found it but now wasn't the time to be admiring the scenery as there was going to be more trouble up ahead.

"Cocoons of Evolution!" Jounouchi yelled. We all looked up and saw a massive tree with multiples of the cocoon being glued to that tree which meant that the Moth which Haga had summoned back on Duelist Kingdom was waiting to come out, of course things got worse when a swarm of bugs appeared before us.

"Just perfect. Magic Knight Giltia," Jounouchi proclaimed. The Magic Knight proceeded to cut through the monsters that attack us however out of no where a Flesh-Eating Insect flew down on to the Magic Knight and both of them were destroyed which meant this whole forest had to be a gigantic bug nest as the rest of the swarm began to descend towards us.

"Holy Barrier – Mirror Force!" Other Yugi retaliated. The bugs were stopped by the magical barrier and they ended up bursting into flames which began to rain down upon the forest that we stood in and to make things worse, the Cocoons of Evolution began to hatch which put us in a tight spot.

"I hope one of you has a plan!" I cried. Fortunately Other Yugi did have a plan as he summoned out both Catapult Turtle and Kuriboh with the little fur ball being loaded onto the catapult with it pointed right at the Great Moths although Jounouchi was confused about this move.

"Using this the Great Moths will be annihilated! Kuriboh, Multiply!" Other Yugi declared. The Spell activated causing Kuriboh to multiple rapidly as it flew into the sky, the army of flying fur balls slammed into the Great Moths causing them to explode upon contact ensuring the Moths would become engulfed in flames effectively destroying them.

This caused Jounouchi and Mai to link hands as they cheered so we continued to push onwards through the forest which eventually lead us out into a large creepy cavern as Jounouchi described it but there was still no trace of either Kaiba brother causing me to worry about them until a faint cry went up causing me to stop.

"Everyone hush," I insisted. The other three swiftly complied as I allowed my ears to pick up on every little sound, eventually the cry came again and I managed to recognise it immediately. "That's Blue-Eyes!" I exclaimed. Looking upwards we all saw a dark swirling vortex and then a familiar white energy burst out from the vortex, once the light faded we saw Blue-Eyes poke her head through the vortex before both Kaiba brothers dropped down before us.

"Kaiba! Mokuba! So you're safe, we were worried," Jounouchi admitted. Seto immediately insulted Jounouchi by calling him a loser dog which angered the impulsive blonde however before the boys' argument could escalate any further an ominous laugh began to sound around us which put me on edge immediately.

"You've done well to make it this far," A masculine voice spoke. However Seto soon revealed that since he was stilled alive which seemed to trouble the person who had spoken but Seto continued on declaring that without his sacrifice then the Five God Dragon technically couldn't be revived but then a laugh came out.

Suddenly the entire surrounding cavern disappeared to be replaced by circuitry which definitely freaked me out as everyone seemed to be freaking out slightly at our weird new surroundings but then a blue flame appeared before us and it began to twist and re-shape itself into a silhouette then became flesh and blood – virtually speaking – allowing me to see the monster that we would be facing.

"The… Five… Headed… Dragon. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" I screamed. The Five-Headed Dragon was one of the most powerful monsters in all of Duel Monsters since only monsters with the Light Attribute class could defeat it in combat and even then its' power was too great for many to actually overcome.

 **Five-Headed Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon/Fusion, Level: 12, ATK/5000, DEF/5000**

"That's cheap the Five God Dragon shouldn't be revived," Jounouchi complained. It hardly surprised me that those underhanded suits decided to pull this trick on us especially when they took the opportunity to gloat about the 'surprise ending' that this game possessed but none of us were backing down from this fight and Mai started us off by bringing out Harpie Lady Sisters.

However the moment they appeared all three became locked in electricity as the goons began to laugh claiming that it was another bit of reprograming that they did and beneath our feet an imagine of the Lord of Dragons appeared; apparently this was a seal that made it so only Dragon-type monsters would be able to fight.

This caused Seto to start laughing as he was completely confident in his ability to win, he then proceeded to summon out his cherished Blue-Eyes with Jounouchi bringing out Red-Eyes, Mai brought out Harpie's Pet Dragon and Yugi summoned out Curse of Dragon.

 **Blue-Eyes White Dragon – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon – Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2400, DEF/2000**

 **Harpie's Pet Dragon – Attribute: Wind, Type: Dragon, Level: 7, ATK/2000, DEF/2500**

 **Curse of Dragon: - Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Level 5, ATK/2000, DEF/1500**

"Hey Katherine, why aren't you summoning anything?" Jounouchi asked. Seto's eyes widened and I think he nearly cursed but restrained himself for Mokuba's sake whilst I allowed my lips to thin at this question because the answer should have been easy… I have no Dragon-type monsters.

"I've got no Dragons but that doesn't mean I can't protect myself," I stated. The goons controlling the dragon before us began to laugh however that didn't stop me from drawing a card and summoning out Aphrodite however I had her come forth in defence mode.

 **Lady of Love, Aphrodite – Attribute: Light, Type; Fairy, Level: 5, ATK/1300, DEF/3000**

The female monster knelt down in front of me with her arms crossed and a determined look on her face, the others sent their dragons to attack but the Five-Headed Dragon also attacked and the attacks crashed into each other but nothing had been done to damage the five headed beast because the fifth head had protected the others from harm.

"There's still one target left to attack. We should start with the defenceless one," The goons taunted. My blood ran cold at this and I swear Seto turned pale at the implication of those words, an attack was launched heading straight for the defenceless boy. "Disappear Mokuba!" The goons commanded.

"MOKUBA!" Jounouchi cried. His monster complied with Jounouchi's unspoken demand and was hit with the blast head on thus saving Mokuba from danger but as a result Red-Eyes was destroyed and Jounouchi fell to his knees as his body began to shake causing me, Other Yugi and Mai to flank around him in concern.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1820 – LP: 0**

"Yugi… the rest… is up to you," Jounouchi admitted. The others – bar Seto – refused to believe it but just like Iru he was turning into digital dust right before our eyes, Jounouchi raised his hand and gave us a thumbs up before he completely vanished from our sight.

"That's not fair! It's against the rules to directly attack the players!" Mai yelled. The goons mocked us as Seto cursed the monsters for what they had done whilst Other Yugi repeated the prophecy that we had heard from Mary making it seem that the spirit already had an idea in mind on how to defeat this dangerous beast but Seto was confused by his words.

"It's the legend that exists in this world. It's a hint for us to defeat it," Other Yugi claimed. The rest of us were confused and looked at him wondering what monster he could possibly be thinking about and if we even had it. "Gaia the Dark Knight become the legendary soldier!" Other Yugi announced. He had activated the Chaos Ritual making it very clear exactly which monster he intended to summon.

 **Chaos Soldier – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior/Ritual, Level: 8, ATK/3000, DEF/2500**

The solider that rescued Other Yugi from defeat against Mai and Kylie sprung forth before us but he was useless in this capacity due to the seal which the goons reminded us but then things only got worse when those goons claimed that they were going to get rid of the solider.

"I won't let you! I'll be your opponent!" Mai declared. She commanded her dragon to attack but without the power of the other three dragons backing her up then Harpie's Pet Dragon was far too weak and so the dragon was destroyed as Mai collapsed to her knees as well.

 **Mai – LP: 2000 – LP: 0**

"Mai no, not you to," I sobbed. Seeing my friends being destroyed right before me and not being able to do anything to help them was tearing at my heart, Mai apologised for not being as much help as she turned into digital dust then disappeared.

"Mai, I won't let you put your life on the line in vain. Kaiba, use this chance to call the Ultimate out," Other Yugi insisted. Seto was angered by the tone that Other Yugi had taken since it sounded like the spirit was attempting to order Seto. "Now isn't the time to say stuff like that!" Other Yugi insisted. However Seto still refused to listen to this, claiming that he could win all by himself.

"Don't fool yourself Kaiba. Disappear along with Blue-Eyes," The goons spoke. They unleashed their attack but Seto was still refusing to listen to Other Yugi so I ripped a card from my deck and I proceeded to activate it immediately hoping to save the stubborn CEO.

"I activate my Trap, Shield Maiden. By paying five hundred Life Points, I can change the target of this attack to anything I wish and I choose myself!" I declared. The others looked at me aghast as the attack ploughed into my body dropping my Life Points down to zero and ripping the air from my lungs.

 **Katherine – LP: 2000 – LP: 0**

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

"KATHERINE!" I yelled. The sweet girl stumbled but she didn't collapse to her knees although her body was heaving with exhaustion, I ran over to her with Mokuba and Kaiba soon following, when we got close as if in a last burst of strength Katherine seize a hold of mine and Kaiba's collars and yanked us down to her level.

"You two are the most powerful duelists I know but at the same time you're both the most prideful and arrogant. Get it through your skulls that you need to work together otherwise we're trapped here forever!" Katherine snapped. She then released us and collapsed to the floor as she turned into digital dust just like the others.

" _Katherine! Katherine!"_ Yugi cried. I felt the boy's sorrow as keenly as my own but I had to stay strong and get out of here if I wanted to save them, I stood to my full height with Kaiba doing the same whilst Mokuba looked ready to burst into tears although Kaiba had gone pale before rage fell upon his face as he looked at me.

"Your plan?" Kaiba growled. Had I not been an ancient spirit trapped within an ancient magical item, I might have actually been scared at the sheer raw anger that crossed over his face although my surprise must have shown. "Katherine is the closest thing to a little sister that I have and a dear friend of Mokuba's, I'm not letting what they did to her go that easily," Kaiba explained.

"Big brother look out!" Mokuba cried. We turned to him as the little boy pushed his big brother out of the way of an attack that neither of us had seen coming, Mokuba just as with the others was turned into dust as he collapsed in his brother's arms which might have sent Kaiba into shock had he not been filled with rage already.

"We need your Ultimate Dragon," I insisted. Kaiba nodded and drew the cards from his deck whilst declaring that the goons – calling them the Big Five – would pay for their acts, he then proceeded to fusion summon the monster out although it was a long shot there was no other option for us to use so we had little choice.

 **Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon, Level: 12, ATK/4500, DEF/3800**

The goons who were possessing the Five-Headed Dragon mocked us since the Ultimate Dragon was still weaker than the one that they controlled however there was a way to tip the balance in our favour, I recited the lines of the prophecy that Mary had spoken and proceeded to activate Fusion in order to fuse Ultimate Dragon and Chaos Soldier into a more powerful form, the Master of Dragon Knight.

 **Master of Dragon Knight – Attribute: Light, Type: Dragon/Fusion, Level: 12", ATK/5000, DEF/5000**

Shortly after being summoned a purple energy surrounded our newly summoned monster as the dragons which had been destroyed appeared on the field as ghosts with energy flowing from them and Five-Headed Dragon into our mighty warrior raising his attack points for this was his Special Effect.

 **Master of Dragon Knight – ATK/5000 – ATK/9000**

With his new might, Master of Dragon Knight unleashed an attack which annihilated Five-Headed Dragon, with our victory in hand Master of Dragon Knight faded away and then the entire surroundings also faded causing both me and Kaiba to be sent falling into darkness.

My eyes fluttered open allowing me to see a bright blue sky floating above my head and then cheering resounded around me causing my body to bolt up, Kaiba was right next to me and both of us stood to our feet seeing that we were in Gouland and the citizens were congratulating us on our victory.

"You have done well defeating the Evil God," Mary's voice sounded. Upon hearing her speak the both of us turned around to face us as she smiled up at us both. "Now this world has been saved," Mary congratulated. Despite her words and our victory, it was incredibly hollow due to the massive loss that we had suffered.

Kaiba claimed it was too far from a true victory and I was inclined to agree however Mary surprised us by telling us that with the Evil God gone she would reveal her true form to us, our eyes widened as Mary floated into the air and transformed into the Holy Elf who began to chant a spell and soon a beam of light shot down from the sky to land in front of us before vanishing.

Jounouchi, Mai, Katherine and Mokuba had been returned to life and even Iru as well, they soon woke up and Mokuba hugged his brother whilst the others greeted me; suddenly a swirling black vortex appeared behind us and sounds came out which set all of us on edge before a voice came through.

" _Calling all gamers, this is your controller speak. I highly suggested getting back to your real bodies before-,_ " Kylie voice sounded. She was cut off as banging occurred and very angry yelling followed. " _Hey Tweedledee and Tweedledum, keep those goons out or else we're screwed! Get back here! Now!_ " Kylie snapped. It was easy to guess the other three were holding off thugs hired by the five that tried to stop us; without wasting a second we charged through the portal.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

I felt my mind and body reconnect, my eyes blinked blearily as my vision confirmed we were back inside of the private lab as the lid of my pod rose up, all of us proceeded to climb out of the pods seeing Honda and Anzu baring the thugs way whilst Kylie stood near the console as she whipped out her phone to make a call.

Yugi confirmed that Seto should also be returning as Mokuba declaring that the goons' plan had failed causing the thugs to flee back to the goons that had hired them, Kylie's voice drew our attention to her as she hung up her phone before turning back to us.

"Seto says had he not been there then the Five Headed Dragon wouldn't have been defeated but he would like to say to Yugi, did you know about Master of Dragon Soldier from the start?" Kylie passed on. It wasn't a surprise to hear that Seto was responding that way but we had done our job and now the Kaiba brothers had been reunited once again

"Could you tell Kaiba that so long as we believe, the cards will be sure to answer us. Back there we both believed in the cards, didn't he?" Yugi requested. Kylie smiled and did as told with her smile only growing wider before hanging up and look at us with a smile still resting on her face.

Soon yawning drew our attention causing us to look to the side as Mai stepped out of her pod which had been in a separate room, Mokuba thanked all of us for what we did; Jounouchi encouraged Mokuba to get back to Seto so the young boy left.

"Anyone for ramen, my treat," Kylie offered. It didn't take much convincing for Jounouchi to agree and so everyone else followed and we walked out of the private lab.


	43. Chapter 43

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc 1209 for your review**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy. Also can people go onto my profile as I have a favour to ask of the Yu-Gi-Oh community.**

Chapter 43: - The Mysterious Transfer Student

I saw at my desk with my head down as I scribbled down random notes, since we had moved to Domino I had to find a school for me to attend since I was still legally a student no matter where I lived so I was currently waiting for the class to start when a group of four caught my attention, or rather their discussion did.

They were talking about a new game store that had opened up, I looked up at them seeing that a familiar array of hair was contained within them so I stood up and walked over to them as the girl of the group began to talk about a particular game that the new shop was trying to sell; they were too distracted by their conversation to notice my approach.

"D.D.M stands for Dungeon Dice Monsters, it's loosely connected to Duel Monsters," I spoke up. The effect was instantaneous as the taller boys collapsed onto the floor from their chairs whilst the girl let out a loud scream of shock and the boy who had drawn me towards the group whipped around to face me in surprise.

"Katherine-chan! What are you doing here?" Yugi exclaimed. Honda and Jounouchi picked themselves up whilst Anzu took a deep breath to calm her heart as they readjusted themselves to look at me causing me to begin messing with the uniform's skirt.

"I'm only sixteen, same as you guys," I answered. From the moment I stepped into Domino High this morning I saw that this had to be the school Yugi attended as all of the boys were wearing the exact same uniform as him except with the coat buttoned up and lacking a Millennium Item of course, I had been hoping to see him but hadn't excepted us to share a class together.

"Anyway, Jounouchi how is Shizuka doing?" I asked. Jounouchi claimed she was doing alright and that her operation was going to allow her to see as good as new which was a big relief however our conversation was cut off by loud, annoying, girly giggling that was actually coming from the classroom next door.

Since the teacher wasn't here yet we all rose to our feet and walked into the classroom only to see a lot girls were gaggling over some guy but I couldn't really see him due to the girls blocking the way, all I could tell was he was pulling some sort of trick that I couldn't exactly see due to my height – curse being short – but it sounded like it used dice.

As the boy spoke it sounded like he was flirting with the girls and the girls seemed to be impressed by the trick that he had performed although Jounouchi had become rather annoyed whilst Honda asked two other male students who this mystery student was.

"Oh yeah, he's a new transfer student named Otogi Ryūji," One of them answered. Despite there being no rational reason, Jounouchi got rather annoyed by this whilst Anzu opted to tease the blonde which caused Jounouchi to start bragging about the fact that he didn't need to show off the talent that he possessed which caused me to restrained an eye roll at those words with Honda shooting another barb at Jounouchi causing him to collapse.

An argument broke out between the two boys so I decided to tune them out as I refocused on the circle of gaggling girl, then Otogi rose to his feet and made his way passed the girls thus allowing me to see what this mystery transfer student looked like.

He was the same height as Jounouchi and Honda with black hair that was styled into some spiked parts with most of it being pulled back into a long pony tail with sharp green eyes with koal outlining them, a red headband with a black diamond pattern was around his forehead and dice hung from his ears with a necklace around his neck.

"You say you're good at Duel Monsters?" Otogi questioned. This drew everyone's else attention to the new boy which caused Jounouchi to start bragging until I kicked him in the shin in order to get him to shut up before he got himself into trouble. "Are you the Duelist Kingdom champion, Muto Yugi-kun by any chance?" Otogi asked.

He bent down to be closer to Yugi but I couldn't help the unease that welled up within me, something was telling me that I shouldn't trust Otogi and my magical instincts were never wrong; Jounouchi asked what Otogi had heard about him but the transfer student claimed he had heard nothing and then challenged Jounouchi to participate in a game with him causing the blonde to repeat the word game.

"Right. We'll use this die and this cup," Otogi explained. Three of the gaggling girls cheered him on whilst Jounouchi got a devious look on his face and I knew that this wasn't going to end well as Otogi set the dice down on a table then placed the cup over it. "Now do you think I can move the die into my right hand without touching the cup," Otogi challenged.

Jounouchi didn't believe what Otogi was claiming, with good reason as he didn't have any magical talents but then Otogi challenged that maybe the die was already gone and my eyes widened as Jounouchi reached for the cup so I reached forward and stopped him from picking it up causing everyone to turn to face me with confused expressions except for Yugi who nodded his head to show he saw through the con as well.

"The die is still under there. It's a con to get you to lift the cup because then he can pick up the die thus fulfilling the requirements," I explained. Jounouchi's eyes widened whilst Otogi allowed a sly smile to spread across his face, I stepped back and looked down "Th-that's n-not a n-nice th-thing t-to do to J-Jounouchi a-and i-it do-doesn't sh-showcase an-any ta-talent," I argued. Gentle hands guided me back as Yugi gave me a soft smile when he stopped me at his side.

"Kathie's right, that was a low method. Let's have a Duel Monsters match fair and square!" Jounouchi angrily challenged. I nearly wanted to smack my forehead at the blonde's stupidity especially when Otogi demanded that they create brand new decks from new packs of cards, claiming it was fair.

"That's way too reckless! If they aren't the normal cards you're used to, you're bound to lose. Besides there's a ton of cards Jounouchi-kun doesn't even know about," Yugi argued. Despite these reservations Jounouchi was still willing to go through with his challenge due to the placement that he held within the Duelist Kingdom tournament and sadly Yugi couldn't get out the words to stop Jounouchi before he accepted.

"That's right. We've got to make this better than the last game we had, if you lose how'd you like to become my **dog** for a week," Otogi suggested. I bit my bottom lip at this, it was only made worse when Jounouchi claimed if he won then the cheerleaders that Otogi had formed would become his which caused the girls to disagree whilst the other three believe Jounouchi was in over his head and going to lose.

"Do you really think I'd lose to this cheating bastard? Don't think I'm the same guy who won the Best Eight in the City District League!" Jounouchi proclaimed. Jounouchi's experience at Duelist Kingdom was going straight to his head and I was considering hauling in Seto to take it away so that Jounouchi would return to normal.

"Good, the match will be held after school today. We'll hold it at the Duel Ring in my newly opened game shop, got it?" Otogi asked. Jounouchi agreed and we were then invited to attend the match which I knew was definitely going to happen, we all left the room but me and Yugi hung back slight so that we could talks.

"You suspicious as well?" I asked. Yugi nodded his head showing that he shared my reservations about how well this duel was going to go. "I'm calling Kylie," I stated. Without waiting for any words, I pulled out my phone and proceeded to call my sister informing her of the situation and she lectured Jounouchi without hesitation.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

School finished and we all headed back to our homes to make a quick change whilst I also got my sister and then we proceeded to meet up outside of the new shop which was named Black Crown where the others were currently waiting for the two of us.

I was wearing a silver blouse with short sleeves and a knee-length swing style green skirt, skin coloured tights and black kitten heels covered my feet as a long sleeved dark blue cardigan helped to cover up my Millennium Gauntlet, I was still debating about whether to tell Yugi about this or not, our souls were connected but I was still worried about the spirit's intentions despite Kylie's reassurances that he wasn't dangerous.

Kylie wore a dark blue graphic t-shirt that had a silver dragon on the front and back with urban style combat pants that ended at her knees and short combat boots with white socks only slightly higher than the boots, her bracelet gleamed under the Japanese sun as a handbag hung from her shoulder with her hair pulled into a high ponytail.

Yugi wore a black long sleeved shirt with a no sleeve light grey jacket with dark grey-black trim with black pants and shoes; Jounouchi wore a white shirt with a long sleeved dark blue jacket and long black trousers with black shoes also covering his feet.

Honda wore a greyish shirt with a long sleeved black jacket and denim jean pants with black shoes; Anzu wore a purple shirt with a three-quarter sleeved white jacket and a pink skirt that ended at her mid thighs with knee high white boots.

Our blonde idiot of a friend was completely confident in his victory over Otogi whilst the rest of us were worried about how well he would actually do as we followed him into the shop and Otogi was standing, he wore a no sleeve black t-shirt covered by a no sleeve red jacket and black pants with a black and golden band on either wrist and a golden circle on either arm along with the adornments he wore at school.

We stepped inside an elevator with a box containing the new packs of cards sat in the centre, Jounouchi went first and began searching through as he pulled out the packs in order to build his temporary deck, once he was done Otogi set about building his own deck, however I noticed that Kylie was staring at the new boy with an inquisitive look in her eyes almost as if trying to decipher him.

The elevator came to a stop and the first sight we were greeted with was three of those girls from school dressed in cheerleading outfits, cheering for Otogi, behind them was the duel arena which Otogi claimed had been rented from Kaiba Land and apparently the duel was going to be broadcast across the world via the internet.

"You know there was a time when advertising one's store was less crude," Kylie commented. She was speaking of the parents of our paternal grandmother who had started the family company which was now a multi-billion corporation; after Jounouchi insulted Otogi those stupid cheerleaders began crying before cheering once Otogi reassured them… that cheering was going to get annoying **very** __quickly.

This stupid cheering seemed to annoy Jounouchi enough that he dashed around to the podium and activated it showing that he was ready for the duel to commence, Otogi was much calmer in his advancement to the podium as he activated it thus beginning the duel.

 **Otogi – LP: 2000**

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000**

"My turn, Oni Tank T thirty-four, attack mode," Otogi announced. He slid the card onto the podium causing the monster to be projected, I was slightly worried about how good of a duelist Otogi might actually be after all he had tried to con Jounouchi before so it wasn't hard to believe this might be another con.

 **Oni Tank T-34 – Attribute: Earth, Type: Machine, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1700**

Otogi taunted Jounouchi into showing his talent so the blonde boy reached out and withdrew a card from his deck before a victorious smile broke out across his face once he saw the card – poker face needs work – Jounouchi then proceeded to summon out the monster in attack mode revealing that it was Sword Hunter

 **Sword Hunter – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 7, ATK/2450, DEF/1700**

The Sword Hunter proceeded to attack Oni Tank and it was promptly destroyed whilst dealing a hefty amount of damage to Otogi's Life Points, also thanks to the Sword Hunter's effect it caused the warriors's attack points to be increased by two hundred points.

 **Sword Hunter – ATK/2450 – ATK/2650**

 **Otogi – LP: 2000 – LP: 950**

Jounouchi was happy whilst Otogi seemed to be annoyed by this early victory and it thankfully shut up those annoying cheerleaders who I didn't need to hear anymore, Honda and Anzu were much calmer and assured of Jounouchi's victory, thankfully Yugi and Kylie aligned with me in maintaining a heavy dosage of worry about the match.

"As I would expect from you Jounouchi-kun," Otogi complimented. This caused Kylie to raised an eyebrow whilst I began to rub my bare fingers together out of worry, Jounouchi stated it was too late for this to be realised before reminding his opponent it was his turn so Otogi reached for another card. "Dark Bat in defence mode, I'll then place another set card," Otogi announced. He played the cards thus bringing out the monster.

 **Dark Bat – Attribute: Wind, Type: Winged-Beast, Level: 3, ATK/1000, DEF/1000**

One must always be wary of face down cards in a duel however Jounouchi wasn't fazed in the least as he seemed confident that he would be victorious as he drew another card from his deck then proceeded to pull out a card from his hand and summoned it out revealing it was Stampeding Sword Beast.

 **Stampeding Sword Beast – Attribute: Earth, Type: Dinosaur, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1200**

The summoned beast charged forward to destroy the Dark Bat however Otogi was calm due to his monster being in defence mode which prevented any damage from being impacted onto his Life Points however he was going to be in for a nasty surprise.

"Even if it **was** in defence mode, the Stampeding Sword Beast smashes right through their guard and the player receives the difference as damage," Jounouchi revealed. Otogi's face descended into an expression of surprise at the twist that he had been dealt thanks to the monster's effect.

 **Otogi – LP: 950 – LP: 550**

"You sure are something else Jounouchi-kun. But my monster won't be going to the graveyard alone, sorry," Otogi revealed. From his side of the field two arms appeared and then shot over to Jounouchi's field taking a tight grip on Sword Hunter before destroying it implying a Trap had been activated to destroy the Sword Hunter, at least it didn't cost Jounouchi any Life Points.

Despite this loss Jounouchi was still too confident in his abilities even though the two non-duelists of this group seemed to also see that Jounouchi had to be more thoughtful in making his moves, he needed to start playing like he did against Other Yugi.

" _I think Otogi knows more about Duel Monsters than he let on,"_ Yugi's voice came into my mind. I suppressed a smile at the fact that Yugi was utilising our bond to consult me, I did have to agree with him since Otogi had made some rather thoughtful moves unlike those that a complete amateur would make.

" _He's conned Jounouchi once, who's to say he won't do it again,"_ I responded. Yugi nodded his head in agreement with my observation although suddenly a hand landed on my head and one also came to rest upon Yugi's head, causing us to look back at the source which turned out to be Kylie.

"Hey, stop mind flirting with each other and focus on the duel," Kylie joked. A scorching red blush crawled its' way across my face and Yugi was no better, if this was any other situation I would have being arguing with Kylie about her words but it was more important to focus on Jounouchi's scenario.

Otogi claimed that it was about time for him to play a tough monster due to Jounouchi losing Sword Hunter and he proceeded to lay a card face down in the Spell and Trap zone then he proceeded to summon out Spike Head and had it attack Stampeding Sword Beast thus destroying it and lowering Jounouchi's Life Points.

 **Spike Head – Attribute: Dark, Type: Machine, Level: 5, ATK/1800, DEF/1700**

 **Jounouchi – LP: 2000 – LP: 1600**

It seemed that Jounouchi was beginning to realise that he was in actual danger of losing this match as the two non-duelists called out to Jounouchi to remind him of the little wager that the two of participants had made, Jounouchi proceeded to draw a card from his deck and a huge smile burst across his face.

"Poker face," Me and Kylie sighed. Really Jounouchi had the worst poker face that I had ever seen, it was a miracle that he had actually been able to win some of his duels on Duelist Kingdom, that is definitely something both Suguroku and Yugi – spirit included – forgot to teach him; Jounouchi proceeded to summon out Goblin Attack Force.

 **Goblin Attack Force – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/2300, DEF/0**

The swarm of goblins charged towards Otogi's Spike Head and proceeded to clobber it with their clubs thus destroying it and taking even more of Otogi's Life Points with them however the Goblins' effect forced them to switch into defence mode after an attack was declared.

 **Otogi – LP: 550 – LP: 50**

The cheerleaders began to wail over the fact that it seemed like Otogi was going to lose with Jounouchi being way too confident in his victory – did he forget Other Yugi's duel with Haga – however the most unsettling thing was that Otogi seemed to be completely calm as he casually played with a lock of his hair.

It seemed that both Honda and Anzu had also forgotten the duel against Haga since they were already celebrating the victory that seemed so certain for Jounouchi before the duel ended, thank Ra that Yugi existed as he called out to Jounouchi for him to not let his guard down but the knucklehead didn't even register the words with Yugi claiming he couldn't watch so I lent him my hand but he pushed it away with a smile.

"Jounouchi's doomed," Kylie bluntly stated. I didn't like thinking like that but it seemed as if Jounouchi was doomed either by losing this duel or by being consumed by his own ego; Otogi proceeded to summon out Super-Dimensional Fighter Vic Viper which was an smart choice since this monster would be able to destroy the Goblin Attack Force despite not dealing any damage.

 **Super-Dimensional Fighter Vic Viper – Attribute: Light, Type: Machine, Level: 4, ATK/1200, DEF/800**

"I play the Spell card, Limiter Removal, Vic Viper powers up," Otogi declared. With the Goblin in defence mode that meant it would be easily destroyed however a power rate of one thousand, two hundred would have been enough anyway so the power increase was rather confusing.

 **Super-Dimensional Fighter Vic Viper – ATK/1200 – ATK/2400**

"Furthermore I activate the Equip Spell card, Meteor Strike," Otogi declared. A gasp tore its' way out of my throat whilst Kylie muttered an damn under her breath and the other spectators caught it although Jounouchi was completely in the dark about its' effect. "Well that lovely lady with your friends know about it, let's say it's a Spell version of your Stampeding Sword Beast," Otogi mocked.

Kylie's eye twitched at the compliment but let it slide as Jounouchi realised exactly what the metaphor meant, Meteor Strike would allow Vic Viper to punch right through the Goblin Attack Force and take away all of Jounouchi's Life Points and nothing could stop it since he didn't have any face down cards out on the field.

 **Jounouchi – LP: 1600 – LP: 0**

With the duel over Jounouchi walked away from the podium with his head hanging down in shame as the cheerleaders were being annoying once again, I wanted Jounouchi to cool his confidence level but not like this, then one of the cheerleaders marched over and forced Jounouchi to take a dog costume whilst ordering him to wear it.

"I expect you to keep your promise Jounouchi-kun, you'll be my dog for the next week," Otogi mocked. This was going way too far with their wager and I nearly said something before my shyness crippled all the words I had to say, fortunately everyone else had me covered as they protested this act especially Kylie who barely held herself back from hitting Otogi.

"Guys just stay quiet, this is my problem," Jounouchi retorted. Suddenly something small came flying over and smacked into Jounouchi's forehead, when it landed I saw it was a die so we turned to Otogi who reprimanded Jounouchi simply for talking.

We tried to get Jounouchi to leave but he refused and once more got hit with two dice this time around and I could see Kylie's temper flaring especially when Otogi ordered Jounouchi to bark and that blonde idiot actually complied with it, that was enough to get Yugi to switch with Other Yugi which I was grateful for.

"Otogi! You've got some guts messing with my friend right in front of me! You're facing **me** now, if I win you'll let Jounouchi go!" Other Yugi spoke up. There was no way that Otogi would be capable of defeating Other Yugi so I wasn't worried at all if it was Duel Monsters but Otogi had already tricked us twice so I didn't put it passed him to try a third time.

"Very well but I'd like to choose the game this time. We'll be facing each other in a game of D.D.M or you may know it as Dungeon Dice Monsters. If you lose to me I'll be taking your 'King of Duelists' title for myself and you'll swear to never play Duel Monsters again!" Otogi declared. That was far too much, a title was fine it meant nothing, but for Other Yugi and Yugi to give up Duel Monsters for good, that was too far.

The others agreed with my thoughts and tried to get Other Yugi to back down except for Kylie who looked at the spirit with worry in her eyes, Jounouchi then stood up and tried to talk some sense to our friend but Otogi fired another die at him, fortunately Other Yugi intercepted it before it hit the blonde boy.

"Listen up! You better remember this! You can't break our friendship with a **game**! I'll take you on in your D.D.M match!," Other Yugi agreed. I hoped that Other Yugi knew what he would do once this game began.


	44. Chapter 44

**Good Day Readers! I only own Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also this was originally written in dubbed so some chapters may have some dubbed dialogue remaining because I like it. Also italics symbolise another language not Japanese, I'm follow the Manga's timeline year speaking because it's easier for me. Thank you to alexc 1209 for your review**

 **I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy. Also can people go onto my profile as I have a favour to ask of the Yu-Gi-Oh community.**

Chapter 44: - Showdown! Dungeon Dice Monsters

Now I knew that I could be reckless – quite often to the horror of my sister – so this was probably a situation of pot calling kettle black but it seemed like Other Yugi was getting in a little over his head with this Dungeon Dice Monsters game… for some reason that sounded strangely familiar somehow but I couldn't exactly peg where I might have heard it from and now wasn't the time to go rifling through my memories.

Both Otogi and Other Yugi had approached the podiums with the ravenette shop owner bragging that since Other Yugi had accepted a game without knowing the rules beforehand then this was his final day as a Duelist; with that out of the way we watched as the arena proceeded to change, the podiums lowered themselves down and slid back into the surrounding area.

Then two different podiums that were more cuboid in shape rose up with three heart symbols on the front then the Duel Monsters' field dropped down allowing the Dungeon Dice Monsters' field to slide out revealing that it was broken up into many different single squares segments, once that was done Otogi insisted that they get the game underway so they approached the podiums.

However as soon as that happened and Other Yugi had the opportunity to look over the podium's set up, his eyes proceeded to widen in surprise and confusion which caused my stomach to churn slightly given that the spirit was probably a little out of his depth by agreeing to play on a field that Otogi chose. I was really beginning to hate this guy and was half tempted to actually punch him but I held myself back for Other Yugi's sake believing he'd teach this arse a lesson.

"These are the dice we'll use to play, the players both choose a total of fifteen dice to us as their pool," Otogi stated. My lips twisted down into a frown at all the new aspects that this game was bringing up and the fact that Otogi was being rather crooked by not explaining how this game worked.

"Th-that's ch-cheating, y-you kn-know th-the ru-rules bu-but Y-Yugi's d-doesn't!" Katherine exclaimed. However this resulted in those three cheerleaders look at my sister with dark looks in their eyes and one marched over to Katherine and make a move to raise her hand in a striking fashion making everyone tense up as Katherine began to shake in fear.

"Shut up or else you little brat!" She snapped. I grounded my teeth against each other and swiftly seized the girl's raised arm before twisting it at a painful angle causing her knees to buckle as I glared down at her with hellfire burning in my eyes.

"Threaten my little sister again and I'll make sure every day is a living nightmare for the rest of your lives," I hissed darkly. I then threw the cheerleader away from us and returned my attention to the match seeing that Other Yugi was still perplexed by the dice pool whilst Otogi had chosen his fifteen already, he really was cheating by not explaining everything.

Fortunately Yugi swiftly chosen his fifteen – I seriously hoped his instincts were right – so Otogi proceeded to explain that the dice were this game's equivalent of cards with the dice also being shuffled and thrown out in groups of three at random with all three to be rolled at the same time and the way the dice landed determined what moves the player could make, also to win the game one player had to eliminate the other's Heart Points – this game's Life Points – but there were only three.

With that Otogi declared it time to play with those annoying cheerleaders cheering although Honda and Anzu weren't happy about how this was going, sadly there wasn't anything we could do about it since Other Yugi accepted the terms of this match under his own free will so stepping it might cause Otogi to declare that Other Yugi was forfeiting.

 **Otogi – HP: 3**

 **Yugi – HP: 3**

"There's nothing we can do except give our support to Yugi," I commented. The other three nodded as Otogi made his move explaining that the different symbols on the dice were known as crests and they performed different actions with summoning being a star crest and two out of three dice must having a summoning crest to actually perform the act.

Sadly Otogi had two matching summon crests and so he was actually able to bring out a monster on the very first turn, this was extremely unlucky for Other Yugi but I did wonder exactly how the attacking part of the game was done with Otogi moving on to show us how the monsters were actually summoned in this game.

"Dimension Dice!" Duke declared. With that, an actually die appeared on the arena floor and proceeded to unfolded, revealing that inside of the die was an monster with the die having made some kind of a pathway with its' six sides being spread out. "Gargoyle," Duke declared the monster's identity which was one from Duel Monsters.

 **Gargoyle – ATK/10, DEF/10, HP/10**

Naturally we were all surprised by these two new facts with Otogi proceeding to explain that the once the dice unfolded they ended up forming a Dungeon which would enable the monsters of either player to advance towards the opponent's Heart Points; the other three vocalised their support to Other Yugi as he rolled out his dice.

"The crests are all different!" Other Yugi exclaimed. That wasn't good, if Other Yugi didn't get a monster out on the field and fast then Otogi would have the advantage for this game; Otogi then explained that the six crests symbolised Summon, Movement, Magic, Attack, Defence and Trap with their occurrence depending on the level of each dice chosen.

However the easier a monster was to summon meant that they were much weaker than those that were harder to summon; whilst Otogi's dice had three summon crests each, Other Yugi's only one each which caused the spirit to grit his teeth probably meaning he had picked mostly high level dice thus getting a monster out on the field would be hard work.

Honda and Anzu demanded that Otogi start this game anew but the jerk refused since he claimed that the game couldn't be stopped, with that Otogi made his second move and unfortunately managed to get another set of summoning crests allowing him to bring out his Yaranzo.

 **Yaranzo – ATK/10, DEF/10, HP/10,**

Otogi then used the movement crest he rolled to advance Yaranzo one space before informing Other Yugi that all unused crests were stored away for later usage, Other Yugi made his roll but was unable to get a monster out onto the field so the turn ended allowing Otogi to make his move which ended up giving him a third monster.

 **Lizard Dragon – ATK/10, DEF/10, HP/10**

"Ok, this is ridiculous," I spat. Katherine hummed her agreement with me as worry shone within her eyes about the tight situation that Other Yugi had landed himself in and unlike before none of us could help him out since we lacked the knowledge to do so, Otogi proceeded to advance his dragon further up his Dungeon making it so that his monsters were getting closer to Other Yugi's Heart Points with each passing turn.

"Yes! The dice match up! I can summon something!" Other Yugi declared. I had been so distracted by my thoughts that I must have missed him roll but at the very least I knew he wouldn't be defenceless any more… until that scheming con man spoke up to shatter our growing hope.

"Take a closer look. If their Level's aren't the same, your Summon is a fail," Otogi informed. I was really having to fight down my desire to severely throttle the raven haired boy for every new twist that he was pulling on us, this was completely insane and I swear if something didn't change soon I might just snap. "My turn, level four dice. This game's starting to get boring, let's spice things up a bit," Otogi taunted.

He threw out the dice and when they landed, low and behold he actually managed to get two summon crests **again**. When I mentioned change I did not mean this, Otogi then proceeded to bring out another die onto his field but instead of bringing out a monster, inside of the die was actually a chest but Otogi didn't explain what its' purpose was only stating we could look forward to it later on.

"Oh come on! This is starting to aggravate me!" Katherine snapped. Katherine's temper took a lot more to enrage than mine but from her tone I could tell that she was close to losing her calm veneer if this twisting and turning kept up for much more of the game.

Again Other Yugi rolled his dice and again he failed to get a summoning causing Otogi to taunt him about his lack of progress claiming that he knew that our friend wasn't 'as good as they say'. This caused me to look at the raventte boy wondering exactly what he meant by those words but he explained no further and instead rolled his dice… getting another summoning.

"At this rate I won't be able to watch for much longer," Katherine whined. Her head had become buried in her hands upon seeing the results of this move and I couldn't fault her for how she was thinking, the match was beginning to get very painful to watch especially since Otogi's new monster was only three squares away from Other Yugi's Heart Points.

 **The Thirteenth Burial – ATK/10, DEF/0, HP/10**

'Please if there is a god up there, now would be a great time to help out.' I prayed. As if responding to my words, when Other Yugi made his move he actually managed to land two summon crests with the same level meaning that he could now bring out a monster.

 **Little Wizard – ATK/30, DEF/20, HP/50**

With a monster now out on the field not only was Other Yugi able to advance the magician but this also allowed him to destroy The Thirteenth Burial thus protecting his Heart Points for the time being, Katherine had raised her head whilst I let out a sigh of relief at the turn of events but he wasn't out of danger yet.

"Kylie what do you think, is Yugi in the clear?" Honda asked. I glanced at the brunette boy before shaking my head as I returned my attention to the field before us with my lips pulling into a small frown at the current scenario that we were staring at.

"Despite getting a monster on the field which will no doubt help, Otogi has assembled a long Dungeon and many monsters. Plus there's that chest he brought out earlier, who knows what surprise is in store for us," I responded. Otogi then proceeded to challenge if the Little Wizard would actually be able to stand up against all of his monsters but at least now Other Yugi wasn't completely defenceless.

"Good, I got some summon crests," Otogi taunted. He then brought out another monster thus extending his Dungeon once again and replacing the monster that he had just lost with the Bomb Lizard, I could already begin to feel a headache forming especially when Otogi commented that his new monster would be able to destroy a higher Level monster through the use of Magic Crests.

 **Bomb Lizard – ATK/10, DEF/10, HP/20**

Other Yugi proceeded to make his move and actually managed to get two more summon crests that matched resulting in him bring out Fortress Protecting, Winged Dragon giving him more fighting strength despite the monster's weaker stats when compared to the Little Wizard.

 **Fortress Protecting, Winged Dragon – ATK/10, DEF/10, HP/10**

Otogi made his move although his dice rolled didn't allow him to summon anything but that didn't matter to the boy as he wanted something completely different this time around which he got, Otogi moved his Bomb Lizard so that it was further down the Dungeon and in line with Winged Dragon, by sacrificing two magic crests this allowed Otogi to destroy Other Yugi's monster.

"One step forward, two steps back," Katherine quipped. She was right about this fact whilst the three cheerleaders praised the boy for what he had managed to accomplish on this turn causing my lips to twist into a sneer at their over the top antics. "Don't worry about it Yugi, I know you can make a comeback," Katherine called out.

The ancient spirit made his move and rolled the dice he had but didn't receive any summoning crests however Otogi successfully managed to roll another summoning thus allowing him to bring out a sixth monster in the form of Dark Assassin then he advanced Lizard Dragon and Bomb Lizard putting the two of them only two spaces and one space away from Other Yugi's Heart Points respectively.

 **Dark Assassin – ATK/20, DEF/10, HP/20**

"Now then it's your turn to roll the dice or perhaps you want to give up? Well it'll take a miracle for you to beat the one who made this game," Otogi taunted. However all of us were surprised by the admission with Other Yugi beginning to question Otogi about this revelation until the boy cut him off.

"I'm am! I was so close to being seen by the entire world as both the champion **and** founder of Dungeon Dice Monsters! Yugi-kun, I know all about your winning of the Duelist Kingdom tournament and the fact that you beat Pegasus becoming the champion! But did you know that the moment you **earned** that fame, you also ruined my dream at the same time?!" Otogi accused. That was an odd thing to accuse Yugi and his spirit companion of being responsible for, just because they beat Pegasus shouldn't have done anything to Otogi's dream.

"What?" Other Yugi questioned. Otogi explained he had dedicated his life to making and refining Dungeon Dice Monsters into its' present day version before sending it off to my uncle, a few days later he received an invitation to Pegasus' island to discuss the proposal.

"With only a brief sample of my ideas, Pegasus created a model of my Dungeon Dice Monster and turned it into a perfect game! And in his first time ever playing it, he beat **me** , the creator of the game," Otogi explained. It was quite easy to guess that Pegasus had used his Millennium Eye against Otogi to win but no one said anything.

"Despite this he thoroughly enjoyed it and admitted his own nieces had as well, so they wanted to take it global. He promised he would contact me after the Duelist Kingdom tournament ended but after you **beat** Pegasus in the Duelist Kingdom, I lost **complete** contact with him! My plan to spread D.D.M around the world, Muto Yugi, was completely ruined because of **you** ," Duke finished.

I felt like smacking my forehead as I now remembered several months before Duelist Kingdom that Pegasus had indeed brought in a new game for me and Katherine to play, that was why Dungeon Dice Monsters was familiar to me, because I had played it before and one look at Katherine told me she had recalled that singular game many months ago as well.

Other Yugi attempted to talk to Otogi about Pegasus but the boy was stubbornly refusing to listen to him calling Pegasus a perfect champion and implied that Other Yugi must have cheated during their match, I doubted anyone would actually be able to get through to him until the match was over, Other Yugi made his move and managed to successfully get two summon crests allowing him to bring out Iron-Ball Devil Gorogon.

 **Iron-Ball Devil Gorogon – ATK/10, DEF/10, HP/30**

Otogi took his turn and landed movement crests along with an attack crest allowing him to move both of his monsters a single space thus letting Lizard Dragon launch an attack straight at Other Yugi's Heart Point resulting in it being taken out, fortunately Otogi could only attack once since he only had one attack crest.

 **Yugi – HP: 3 – HP: 2**

This caused the cheerleaders to get extremely annoying in their celebrations although Jounouchi swiftly shut them up but this caused them to begin abusing him which had been going on throughout the match, Jounouchi did something they didn't like so they retaliated rather harshly but never to an extend of actually causing long lasting physical harm.

Otogi accused Other Yugi of having cheated against Pegasus although he actually used the word this time which angered the spirit and I'm plenty sure that Other Yugi also realised the predicament that he had been placed in at the moment so I began to think through something that could help my friend out of the situation he had been backed into when a memory of that game rose into my mind.

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

" _Ok so once a monster can be summoned, you place the die like this and it unfolds to make a Dungeon to reach your opponent's Heart Points," I read. As I did Katherine placed her level three dice onto the field and unfolded it revealing the monster inside was one called Iron-Ball Devil Gorogon._

" _According to this manual, some monsters have abilities that rely upon crests and Gorogon is one of them," Katherine stated. I looked at computer screen containing the page she was on and nodded my head in agreement with her words but the ability wasn't viable at the moment so Katherine ended her turn._

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

"Yugi, that computer next to you! It's a database of all the monsters that are used in Dungeon Dice Monsters!" I exclaimed. Other Yugi looked at me before realising that I had played the game already when he recalled Otogi's words whilst Otogi looked to be rather suspicious about how I had such knowledge about his game but now wasn't the time to talk about that.

"Thanks Kylie," Honda muttered. I nodded my head before reaching into my handbag and pulled our several folded pieces of paper that I had received earlier this day from my father as I looked at Otogi who watched as Other Yugi tapped away at the computer.

"Don't mention it. I don't want Yugi to lose this match and give up Duel Monsters. After all that would mean losing a worthy opponent and there are so few of them in the world," I admitted. There was no way that I was letting anyone bully any friend of mine out of playing a game simply because of an event that couldn't be controlled.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45: - God Orgoth's Fierce Assault

Thanks to Kylie's words, Other Yugi was currently tapping away on the computer hoping to find out something about one of his monsters that could possibly help him out of this sticky situation before Otogi had any time to roll the two attack crests he needed to end this whole match.

All the time this was happening those stupid cheerleaders were at it again and I could feel their annoying voices slowly grating away at my nerves whilst also insulting Other Yugi by calling him treacherous, Jounouchi leaped to his friend's defence but this only served for the three girl to demand that the boy be quiet like he promised but Jounouchi didn't listen as he began to yell at Otogi for his accusations.

"That's right. Actually Pegasus was the treacherous one using his Mind Scan and all that crap," Honda spoke up. There was no chance of Otogi actually listening to anything the lot of us said simple because we supported Yugi and besides that, at the moment we needed to focus on supporting Other Yugi who was in a much more perilous position than I had seen him be stuck in before.

Anzu voiced my own reservations about how our words would be heard by the ravenette boy, the real person to blame for this whole thing was whoever had stolen Pegasus' Millennium Eye but neither they nor Otogi knew anything about that as it had been something kept between me, Yugi, Other Yugi, Kylie and Shadi.

"Yeah! This battle isn't just about me anymore! Yugi this is a battle to protect your manhood!" Jounouchi yelled. This resulted in all three cheerleaders slamming their feet into the blonde boy sending him onto the floor and then reprimanded him by calling him a loser dog, this ended up making Jounouchi be surrounded by a depressed aura.

The two brunettes commented about the way in which Jounouchi was being treated by the cheerleaders with one commenting at least Jounouchi hadn't been reduced to howling at the moment… seconds later Jounouchi proceeded to howl. The two then proceeded to allow their heads to hang in shame whilst a sweat drop formed on my head at the weirdness that was Katsuya Jounouchi, Kylie ignored the scene in its' entirety.

Other Yugi made his move and revealed he got two magic crests that had times two multiplies attached to them giving him a total of four thus allowing him to activate Gorogon's special ability, all thanks to Kylie's timely recollection of our only match involving Dungeon Dice Monsters with Otogi confirming the information that Other Yugi had gleaned.

By sacrificing three magic crests Other Yugi promptly destroyed Bomb Lizard and since he had enough crests to activate the attack once more, the ancient spirit proceeded to do so thus getting rid of Lizard Dragon and ensuring that his remaining Heart Points were kept safe from harm for the time being.

In response those cheerleaders began to wail whilst Jounouchi cheered on his friend's turning of the tide, I let a sigh of relief escape from my lungs as my muscles finally unwound themselves seeing that Other Yugi had clawed his way out of danger but Kylie still remained as tense as stone unwilling to let herself relax whilst the match was still on going.

"Monsters can only attack once per turn but a monster's Special Effect is a special exception. Yugi the fact that you actually discovered that, I thought you were nothing but a shy nerd at first, but…," Otogi bragged. Naturally Kylie rolled her eyes in response to this clearly getting tired of the boy's arrogance and ignorance.

"Frankly I though this game was nothing but nonsense when I first heard about it. However I finally get it Dungeon Dice Monsters is really fun, I can see why you wanted to spread this game over the entire world," Other Yugi stated. Otogi accepted the compliment before turning back to claiming that Other Yugi couldn't get out of this by praising him… sweet Ra above, you'd have an easier time getting blood from a stone than talking sense to Otogi.

Other Yugi wasn't looking to escape from the match as he claimed that the game was just getting started, Otogi was annoyed by this and he proceeded to send his dice flying out, fortunately he didn't get any summon crests and instead decided to store up the crests that he had received from the roll for later usage so that meant it was time for Other Yugi to make his move.

This dice roll provided him with two summon crests and a movement crest thus allowing the ancient spirit to bring out another monster into his battalion and expand his Dungeon even more, the monster that had been brought out was Duke of Twin Swords.

 **Duke of Twin Swords – ATK/20, DEF/10, HP/30**

Sadly though, the Duke had been put in a position that meant he couldn't take down any of Otogi's monsters that were already out at the time but Other Yugi wasn't bothered by this and instead stored up the remaining crest that he had rolled which lead to a mocking compliment from Otogi.

"What are you talking about? I don't really get it," Jounouchi complained whilst holding a signpost with a question mark on it. I was confused about when and how Jounouchi had managed to secure the object but Otogi swiftly insulted Jounouchi before reminding him of the rules but then those stupid cheerleaders got involved causing me to look away.

Other Yugi was back to flicking through the database clearly looking for any information about his monsters in order to give him a leg up on Otogi but the ravenette was quick to react by throwing out his dice resulting in him getting some summoning crests causing me to let out a groan whilst Kylie breathed deeply to control herself; Otogi proceeded to bring out the Minotaur.

 **Minotaur – ATK/20, DEF/20, HP/20**

Otogi used up four movement crests to have Minotaur advance along his Dungeon until the bestial creature was aligned with Other Yugi's Duke so that it could attack, sadly due to an effect it possessed Minotaur gained ten more attack points when fighting all warrior-types.

 **Minotaur – ATK/20 – ATK/30**

Other Yugi was quicker however as he utilised a defence crest that he had stored to switch his Duke's mode thus only allowing Minotaur to do twenty points of damage since the Duke's ten defence points absorbed a third of Minotaur's attack points thus negating a third of the battle damage he would have received.

 **Duke of Twin Swords – HP/30 – HP/10**

Naturally Otogi was annoyed by this sudden twist whilst I let out a breath I'd been holding, on Other Yugi's turn he used the two attack crests he'd just rolled to activate his Duke's special effect which allowed him to attack the Minotaur twice in this turn causing it to be destroyed.

Otogi was shocked by the destruction of his monster whilst the cheerleaders wailed and Jounouchi declared his happiness by jumping about and howling like the dog costume that he wore along with cheering whilst the other two congratulated Other Yugi on his success but me and Kylie weren't settled by this as Otogi still had all his Heart Points.

"Otogi it seems we've come right back to the start line!" Other Yugi commented. However instead of snapping out a retort or remaining clam and indifferent to the twist, Otogi began to laugh causing Other Yugi's expression of confidence to shift to concern whilst the rest of us stared at the near cackling game designer.

"I admit it was really magnificent for you to be able to beat my Minotaur. But you're hugely mistaken if you think some newbie can completely master Dungeon Dice Monsters! This game isn't decided just by Monster battles!" Otogi claimed. Naturally all of us were confused by this until Otogi insisted for Other Yugi to look at the field with ancient spirit's piercing eyes looking over each aspect of the field that lay before us and then a startled 'oh no' slipped passed his lips but the two non-duelists didn't understand what had startled the boy so much.

"I guess I'll have to explain it to you. Listen, you use the dice to summon a monsters as well as expand the field, you're meant to connect it to your Dungeon corridor," Otogi explained. His arrogant tone had caused my lips to pull into a frown but once he finished I snapped my head around so that I could look over the field once again.

We did indeed see the connected Dungeon paths before us and I bit my lip remembering another rule about this game just as Anzu realised what Otogi had accomplished, one Dungeon could not overlap another and with Other Yugi boxed in this effectively meant that Other Yugi could no longer building up his road forward to Otogi's Heart Points.

Jounouchi also realise exactly what was being got at by the whole scenario as he slumped down to the ground mumbling that Yugi couldn't before trailing off although Otogi picked up the sentence by finishing that Yugi didn't have any hope of winning against him but Honda still held out hope by questioning the game designer if there was another way

"Well, he just has to find out how to summon his monsters in the enemy's Dungeon but to do that he'd have to defeat my entire monster army," Otogi revealed. That did seem to be the only option available but if Other Yugi did decide to move his monster down that road it meant running a literal gauntlet of enemies which might not be a plausible idea despite being the only option.

Everyone realised the tight situation that Other Yugi had been forced into as Otogi made his move, however before rolling the raventte lifted up one of his dice revealing that it was black in colour and asked for his opponent to look at it but Other Yugi only saw the black die that it was but I suspected it was likely there was something special about it.

"This is known as the 'Rare Black', take a good look at what happens when you roll the black die," Otogi declared. He then rolled his dice and successfully got the pair of summons that he had been desiring so proceeded to dimension the black die he presented to us however when it opened up inside was a swirling vortex with rainbow coloured light beams around the edge. "I summon the Level 3 Warp Vortex!" Otogi declared.

Naturally all of us were confused – again – which resulted in Otogi being an arrogant jerk – again! – as he explained that the swirling vortex could only be brought into play by the 'Rare Black' die which allows the monsters to teleport across the board depending upon the position of the two vortexes and Otogi had the position for the second vortex already set up deep within Other Yugi's territory.

"That's not good, the moment Otogi gets another black die that summons he'll be in perfect striking distance of Yugi's Heart Points," Kylie stated. Other Yugi wasn't daunted by this fact and instead proceeded to roll his dice which allowed him to bring out another monster to bolster his defences known as the Swift Black Ninja.

 **Swift Black Ninja – ATK/20, DEF/20, HP/10**

Sadly the minute that Otogi's dice got spat out he already had a black die in hand so when he went to roll it I instantly scrunched up my eyes and locked my hands together refusing to open my eyes in the vain hope that I might avoid seeing my friend's defeat and another friend's torture.

" _Katherine it's ok, he didn't get two summon crests,_ " Kylie voice came mentally. Its' calming reassurance washed over me like waves causing my hands to fall down to my sides as my eyes opened to see that my sister was indeed correct and my heartrate managed to start settling down whilst my sister seemed to wipe invisible sweat from her brow implying she had been greatly worried as well.

"That's…," Other Yugi started. His turn had come and I wondered why he seemed so surprised but that was soon answered when Other Yugi turned back to his opponent with a smirk resting on his face. "Otogi, it seems you've overlooked something, I have one as well," Other Yugi informed. As he did, the ancient spirit raised his hand revealing the very same black die that I had been dreading the appearance of not but a turn ago.

"He has the devil's luck," Kylie commented in awe. I had to agree since what were the odds that Other Yugi would successfully get a Rare Black die right when it seemed the most dangerous, thus turning it into a practical blessing, our friend proceeded to roll the die and successfully gained two summon crests allowing him to dimension his own warp vortex, leaving a path right to Otogi's Heart Points.

Upon orders from Other Yugi, Swift Black Ninja advantage into the Warp Vortex since a single movement crest allowed him to move a total of three spaces making the ninja a wise choice for the task of infiltrating Otogi's territory to get a strike at the game designer's Heat Points.

The ninja moved like a speeding bullet and gracefully jumped into the swirling darkness before leaping out on the other side advancing onwards until it neared Otogi's very first monster Gargoyle which was swiftly dispatched by one well-placed kunai leaving Otogi vulnerable to Other Yugi's attack next turn.

I couldn't help the glee that surged through me as I excitedly clapped my hands together whilst Kylie chuckled as she lay her hand upon her forehead seemingly unable to process the sheer luck that our friend had been granted on that turn, Otogi made his move but the luck that had been with him earlier had apparently abandoned him as he failed to roll the two summon crests he needed to stop Swift Black Ninja from reaching him.

Other Yugi's luck remained with him as he rolled the necessary movement crests to advance Swift Black Ninja forward two more spaces allowing him to be in direct line with Otogi's Heart Points thus letting the ninja attack the ravenette boy and finally bringing this game back to an equal playing field.

 **Otogi – HP: 3 – HP: 2**

Naturally all those supporting Other Yugi couldn't help but cheer at the way that he had been able to turn this duel around, it truly was a display of the skill that he possessed despite technically being an amateur at this game and the beaming smile on Kylie's face showed just how proud she was of the match's flow even now.

"That's my king for you," Kylie commented. However things soon shifted when Otogi began to laugh of all things causing me to stiffen up as Kylie's smile slid off her face with Other Yugi also being confused as to why the boy had started to laugh all of a sudden after losing one of his Heart Points, I was thinking he might be in denial.

"To harm **me** in Dungeon Dice Monsters, just as I expect of the Duelist Kingdom victor," Otogi claimed. Kylie was quick to raised her index finger and point it at her temple before spinning it in a circle motioning that she thought Otogi had clearly lost his mind. "You're making me really excited Yugi-kun but… you won't be touching me again!" Otogi continued.

Otogi unleashed a dice roll that seemed much more ferocious than those he had done before, maybe losing his Heart Point had done something to him, the dice rolled along before stopping with two of them landing on summon crests allowing Otogi to bring out a creature he called his most powerful monster, God Orgoth.

 **God Orgoth – ATK/20, DEF/20, HP/50**

However Otogi didn't stop his counter attack there as he then proceeded to use the two magic crests he had stored to increase God Orgoth's attack power making the newest monster strong enough to destroy Other Yugi's Swift Black Ninja with ease.

 **God Orgoth – ATK/20 – ATK/30**

With the two movement crests at his disposal this allowed Otogi to advance Orgoth – causing the arena to practically shake with each step the giant made – until it was perfectly in line with Swift Black Ninja and the behemoth warrior unleashed its' attack sending up a cloud of dust and most assuredly destroying the Swift Black Ninja with Otogi vocalising this point.

"You really think so," Other Yugi retorted. Everyone looked at him before turning their faces to the fading cloud dust allowing us to see that the ninja had miraculously survived the deadly attack. "The moment God Orgoth attacked I used a Trap crest to activate Swift Black Ninja's Special Effect. Swift Black Ninja has the ability to dodge any attack," Other Yugi explained.

Never before had I felt such a surge of relief as powerful as the one that washed over me upon seeing Swift Black Ninja's successful escape from the attack, in fact the relief so much that my body slumped against Kylie who exhaled quite a long breath showing that she had been just was worried and was just as relieved as I was that the ancient spirit had pulled off another quick escape trick unfortunately Orgoth's Special Effect did not wear off when the turn ended meaning that its' power could be kept at a high level for the remainder of the match.

On the other hand Otogi was incredibly angered that Other Yugi had become so skilled at the game in only a few turns but perhaps that would convince him that Other Yugi had truly beaten Pegasus fair and square but only time would tell as the match proceeded to march ever onwards with Other Yugi throwing out his dice.

I seriously hoped that he had managed to roll some trap crests since he would be in need of them soon but for now Other Yugi had his ninja attack Otogi's Heart Points once again thus finally pushing our friend into the lead despite the fearsome shadow of Orgoth pressing down on his monster.

 **Otogi – HP: 2 – HP: 1**

Naturally Otogi was distraught over this whilst the rest of Other Yugi's friends cheered but I wasn't about to be celebrating anything until either Orgoth was destroyed or until Otogi's last Heart Point was removed thus ending this match, I saw the game designer's eyes twitching which meant that he was probably going to retaliate violently for this loss, especially after he declared it wouldn't happen again.

The ravenette threw out his dice and whether he obtained the crests he needed or not didn't matter as he immediately ordered Orgoth to attack Other Yugi's Swift Black Ninja and judging from the concerned look on the ancient spirit's face he probably wasn't able to save the ninja from destruction this time around thus taking out the only monster that had been able to damage Otogi at this moment.

"This is bad, with that relentless giant on the field and only a few short steps from the warp vortex, Yugi better figure something out fast or else Otogi will win," I spoke up. Kylie's lips thinned as we looked at the ancient spirit who seemed to be concerned about his own predicament as much as we were.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46: - The Miracle Dimension!

With Strike Ninja having been destroyed that forced Other Yugi to fall back on the defensive when his turn came, the ancient spirit rolled his dice and proceeded to move his Duke of Twin Swords backwards thus putting the warrior in a position to defend his two remaining Heart Points.

"Then it's my turn. You won't make it in time Yugi-kun, cause I'll make it **before** you!" Otogi bragged. As he spoke, his dice were being casually tossed about within his hand and once he finished the dice were thrown out with the result causing a smirk to break out across his face. "Orgoth advances!" Otogi commanded.

The giant complied with the request making it so that there was only a square separating the knight and the Warp Vortex that would allow Orgoth to breach Other Yugi's defences which caused Otogi to begin bragging about the move he was going to make.

"He is seriously beginning to tick me off," I growled. Katherine nodded her head to show her agreement and all of us watched as Orgoth completed Otogi's move by stepping onto the swirling black portal, a purple mist shrouded him as he was dragged inside before reappearing deep within Other Yugi's territory only steps away from the ancient spirit's Heart Points and towering over the monsters that were aligned with Other Yugi.

"He's here! If I don't do something, God Orgoth will get to my Heart Points!" Other Yugi exclaimed. The spirit took a hold of his dice and then threw out the cubes obviously determined to find a way to overcome the problem that was bearing down upon him.

Other Yugi managed to roll some more movement crests so he proceeded to use them to have his monsters form a barricade around his Heart Points in order to stave off Orgoth long enough for Other Yugi to find some way to take down the giant that was looming only steps away from his monsters.

"No wall of monsters can stop God Orgoth," Otogi spat. He then proceeded to throw out his dice and then declared that we would see a real master plan causing Katherine to scoff whilst I rolled my eyes. "God Orgoth, move forward! Orgoth's Special Effect, using two magic crests I can raise his attack by ten points," Otogi declared.

 **God Orgoth – ATK/30 – ATK/40**

With the increase in power complete Otogi then commanded his giant warrior to destroy Iron-Ball which took out the one monster Other Yugi had that might have been able to stop Orgoth from destroying another of the spirit's Heart Points causing Other Yugi to grit his teeth whilst a frown twisted at my lips.

Those infernal cheerleaders started those antics again and I was half tempted to gag them just so that I wouldn't have to deal with that aggravating noise anymore, Honda pointed out the obvious of our friend's situation whilst the annoying girl stated that Other Yugi wasn't capable of being able to bolster his forces due to the fact that he couldn't Dimension Dice anymore because of a lack of room.

"I hope Yugi can pull out of this," Katherine admitted. I didn't blame her since none of us wanted the young boy or his spirit companion to give up Duel Monsters because of one foolish individual's blind desperation for revenge against the wrong person.

"Yugi-kun you've only got two monsters left now and you can no longer summon. You've sure tried hard since the game started, I **praise** you for that much. However a cheap duelist who cheated Pegasus stands no chance against **me**!" Duke declared. I had enough of this foolish blind boy's determination to pin the ruination of his dream on our innocent friend.

"Holy mother of Ra! We were there! We saw the duel play out card for card! Yugi didn't cheat!" Me and Katherine yelled in unison. Everyone jumped back having not expected the two of us to make such a commotion at the same time but Otogi only narrowed his eyes at us showing that he didn't believe us so I threw my arms into the air in a sign of giving up whilst Katherine allowed her forehead to rest against the arena.

"I did **not** cheat him and this isn't over yet!" Other Yugi retorted. He then threw out his dice before turning to type away at the database obviously trying to use the crests he'd rolled for some kind of strategy. "Did you forget the Wizard's power already? Little Wizard, he can attack monsters from two spaces away," Other Yugi revealed.

The sorcerer unleashed green lightning flying directly towards God Orgoth however Otogi was quicker to react as he utilised a defence crest to weaken the attack that was sent flying forward thus preventing the giant's destruction but at least the colossal warrior did lose some of its' hit points, sadly the same was true for Little Wizard as well.

 **God Orgoth – HP/30 – HP/20**

 **Little Wizard – HP/40 – HP/20**

Now it was Otogi's turn and I had a feeling that this move wasn't going to be a good one for Other Yugi, Orgoth moved forward a single space but instead of attacking immediately Otogi instead elected to use six of his stored magic crests to further bolster the attack power of his ace monster making it practically overwhelming.

 **God Orgoth – ATK/40 – ATK/70**

"God Orgoth's attack points went from forty to seventy and if he uses his defence crests, I can't touch him," Other Yugi realised. However Otogi barely acknowledged Other Yugi words as he had Orgoth attack Little Wizard thus destroying the spellcaster leaving our friend with only the Duke of Twin Swords to protect his Heart Points.

"You no longer have any way to turn the tables," Otogi taunted. However the ancient spirit wasn't going to give up any time soon as he picked up his newest set of three dice but he then appeared to slump a bit probably suffering from an internal conflict. "Want to surrender Yugi-kun?" Otogi continued. Naturally this angered Other Yugi as those brain dead girls cheered for the game designer.

"Yugi, pick up the dice! I beg you!" Jounouchi cut across. This drew everyone's attention to the boy seeing that he was finally standing up instead of moping about his predicament, he even turned on the cheerleaders when they insulted him ordering them to be quiet for once. "Fight Yugi! You're not fighting for **me** anymore! It's for the hundreds of Duelists out there Yugi," Jounouchi encouraged.

"For the Duelists?" Other Yugi asked. Jounouchi proceeded to continue explaining himself, that Other Yugi had to fight for the people who had dueled against him with all of their strength and putting their own feelings on the lines and that count included Pegasus amongst the duelists as well since even he had given everything his all in the duel against Other Yugi and Yugi, Jounouchi claimed that even though the game was completely different that didn't mean that Other Yugi didn't have the responsibility to give it his all until the very end.

"Jounouchi's right. This is just another game, keep a level head and see all the angles, you'll find a solution if you stay calm," Katherine called out. Honda and Anzu also jumped in with their own two cents on the scenario whilst I simply nodded my head towards the ancient spirit to show that he had my support as well.

Fortunately our words had gotten through to Other Yugi as he reaffirmed his belief in his dice and his cards before continuing with the game by sending his dice flying out and they gave him a movement crest allowing him to advance his only remaining monster forward so that it could confront the towering giant before him.

That didn't end our friend's move as he combined his stored attack crests and the ones he'd just rolled which allowed his Duke of Twin Swords to attack a total of six times, since Otogi only possessed five defence crests it was clear to know that one attack would get through Orgoth's defence and remove Otogi's ace monster from the game.

"Don't underestimate me! I activate Yaranzo's Special Ability, I change my two trap crests into defence crests," Otogi revealed. As he did the creature created another two defence crests thus preventing Other Yugi's Knight from being able to break through God Orgoth's guard allowing the giant to survive and causing my hand to slam against the arena in anger at this twist.

" _Something tells me Otogi had this whole thing planned for a while_ ," Katherine commented mentally. I wouldn't be surprised if my sister's suspicions were correct given that Otogi probably had his entire revenge scheme planned out since he heard the news about Pegasus being defeated in a duel by Yugi.

Katherine's theory more than likely came from the fact that Otogi's dice seemed far too perfectly structured to work in his advantage as clearly displayed by the usage of Yaranzo's ability to protect his ace via conversion of crests and the Warp Vortex to get passed all of opposition's defences to strike directly at the Heart Points.

"See that? Yaranzo can change any crest in my crest pool into any crest I want them to be! I didn't even need the unstoppable God Orgoth to put you in your place," Otogi mocked. He then threw out his dice and proceeded to have Orgoth attack and destroy the Duke of Twin Swords thus leaving Other Yugi completely defenceless.

Otogi mocked the situation and then asked what Other Yugi was going to do however our friend wasn't the kind to back down from the fight with him even lecturing Otogi which caused the game designer to pause almost as if he was processing the words that were spoken then Other Yugi proceeded to roll out the dice that he had and I nearly started praying that something would help Other Yugi out in this situation.

"There's got to… there's got to be a way out of this," Other Yugi rationalised. This immediately threw Otogi back to his arrogant streak as he proceeded to roll out his own dice and once that was done, Otogi immediately proceeded to have Orgoth the Relentless to advance and destroy one of Other Yugi's Heart Points making everything even once more.

 **Yugi – HP: 2 – HP: 1**

"If you don't beat God Orgoth next turn, you're going to lose. But I'll compliment you for getting Orgoth's hit points down to twenty," Otogi gloated. However Other Yugi wasn't about to give up just yet claiming all he had to do was summon a monster to turn this match around. "What?! You **still** won't give up? And just **where** do you think you're going to **summon** that monster?!" Duke questioned.

All of us were shocked by the words that had been spoken and I immediately snapped my head down to look out over the arena hoping to find some shape that the dice could open up into whilst Otogi continued to brag about his 'obvious' victory over Other Yugi being near.

"Every puzzle has an answer, nothing is unsolvable ," Katherine calmly declared. As if taking heart from my sister's words Other Yugi threw out his dice and actually managed to get a level four summoning but Otogi still claimed it was a pointless roll since the monster couldn't be brought out onto the field.

"Don't be so sure of that," Other Yugi shot back. The smirk that was stretching across his face was one that I had seen far too many times to not recognise, it meant that he had this game won, no matter what Otogi attempted, our friend would win this match. "Otogi there are various places left to dimension the dice," Other Yugi stated. However Otogi was angered that Other Yugi had dared to tell him how to play his game.

Other Yugi then placed the dice on the podium display allowing it to be summoned out onto the field and in complete amazement to the opposition and complete joy to all those who supported Other Yugi, the dice proceeded to unfold into a perfect position that Otogi had overlooked revealing Other Yugi's ultimate monster and his most trusted companion that had always come to his rescue in so many matches before this one, the Black Magician.

 **Black Magician – ATK/40, DEF/20, HP/30**

Immediately the spirit used Black Magician to advance forward to Orgoth and the mighty spellcaster destroyed the towering giant thus erasing the threat of Other Yugi losing his last Heart Point and stripping Otogi of his ace monster causing the others to cheer seeing that things were beginning to turn around for Other Yugi.

"Never before has that magician failed and I doubt he ever will," I stated. I had seen how much faith Yugi and the spirit put into the Black Magician and that faith was returned as had been exhibited by my trip into Other Yugi's Soul Room; naturally Otogi and his little cheerleaders were completely shocked by Other Yugi's accomplishment.

"Dice roll!" Otogi declared. He practically slammed out his dice but once rolled this allowed him to move Dark Assassin to the chest that had been a mystery for quite some time during this match. "And now it's time to open the eagerly awaited treasure chest, the Rare Item Monster Cannon," Otogi declared. The chest burst open and out from within came the item making it known why it was called Monster Cannon since the item took the appearance of a giant blue reptile with a massive cannon strapped to its' back.

Otogi explained that a monster was fired as a projectile from the cannon and it would instantly destroy Black Magician, Dark Assassin slipped inside but before the monster could be fired Other Yugi activated Black Magician's special ability which ended up summoning the Magical Silk Hats to protect him from danger.

"Where's the Black Magician hiding?! Monster Cannon, aim for the hat to the far left! Fire!" Otogi roared. Dark Assassin shot forward and the designated hat was destroyed but fortunately for us the Black Magician wasn't under there thus Otogi had wasted his move by being hasty.

Other Yugi explained that he had used a trap crest to utilise the Magical Silk Hats allowing Black Magician to evade the attack, it truly was lucky for us that Otogi had given Black Magician the same abilities as those that he could use in Duel Monsters; Otogi was panicky as he ordered Yaranzo to fall backwards in an effort to protect himself.

"You can't get away!" Other Yugi proclaimed. His rolled dice provided him with the necessary magic crest to activate Magic Box of Death allowing Black Magician to teleport deep into Otogi's territory whilst also skewering Yaranzo, by switching with Yaranzo, Black Magician was in prime attacking position allowing Other Yugi to strike the final blow in this match.

 **Otogi – HP: 1 – HP: 0**

 _ ***Yu-Gi-Oh***_

"It's all over! My dream's gone for good! I created that game all by myself for my dream of making Dungeon Dice Monsters. But if that dream's gone, I have nothing left," Otogi spoke. The raven haired boy had his head in his hands as his words came through, it was clear to see that the boy was completely despondent about the current scenario he believed surrounded him.

After the match had finished and Jounouchi was out of his dog costume, all of us had retreated to a more comfortable room to talk, with Suguroku joining us as he had been at the store front but the cheerleaders didn't come… thank goodness. Now that he had been defeated by Yugi, Otogi had fallen into despair clearly dreading the fact that his game was all but destroyed.

"That's not true at all! Dungeon Dice Monsters is an awesome game," Yugi reassured. Suguroku joined in claiming that Otogi's store was very good competition and I had to agree that the game would be successful since it was the only other one to catch my attention as much as Duel Monsters.

Otogi was still unable to believe it which caused the others to also chip in their agreement about the game being amazing although Jounouchi commented that he didn't like Otogi, given the humiliating defeat and the dog suit debacle I really couldn't blame the blonde haired boy for his dislike of the game designer but things might improve eventually.

Naturally Otogi was surprised that Yugi was letting him off so easily but I knew the kind and gentle soul that he was, was not one to hold a grudge against someone especially because of a simple misunderstanding and Otogi even asked if he could be Yugi's friend which the young boy quickly agreed to.

"Forgiveness is an important part of life and so is friendship. By the way I believe you may wish to look these over," I spoke up. As I did I held out the sheets of paper I had received and Otogi took them a little unsure. "I'm afraid that my Uncle Pegasus is currently comatose after an attack by someone unknown to us but I assure you Dungeon Dice Monsters is going global," I added.

Otogi's eyes widened before he opened the sheets of paper and began to read over them with rapt attention soaking in each word that was written on the pristine paper before finally lowering it and looking right at me so I extended a hand towards the boy.

"I believe we haven't been introduced, my name is Kylie Hope and I hope the partnership we have will be as fruitful as the one that my father possesses with Pegasus," I introduced. Otogi smiled before he reached over and slipped his hand into mine which we proceeded to shake as everyone gathered around to look at the paper.

In pure black and white having been drawn up by my father according to stipulations sent off by Pegasus several days ago during the Duelist Kingdom tournament, was the contract that Otogi had been desperately waiting for that would allow his game to grow just as he had dreamed.

"Thank you Yugi-kun. I'm sorry I put you through so much. You sure are strong, there's no way someone with a strong heart like you would have cheated against Pegasus and Kylie-san you can bet I'll make sure Dungeon Dice Monsters is the best game it can be," Duke stated.

He was right about Yugi's heart, it was far stronger than the others realised and Yugi admitted that it was because of all the wonderful friends he'd made… including an ancient spirit trapped within an equally ancient object.


End file.
